Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak and his Belarusian counterpart, Igor Lyashenko, will discuss on Thursday results of efforts toward restoring the performance of the Druzhba pipeline, Kozak's spokesman, Ilya Dzhus, told reporters
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th May, 2019) Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak and his Belarusian counterpart, Igor Lyashenko, will discuss on Thursday results of efforts toward restoring the performance of the Druzhba pipeline, Kozak's spokesman, Ilya Dzhus, told reporters.
"A new round of talks between Kozak and his Belarusian counterpart, Mr. Lyashenko, will be held on Thursday. Apart from the general range of issues on energy cooperation, they will also discuss the results of work on restoring the performance of the Druzhba pipeline," Dzhus said.
He did not specify whether Kozak and Lyashenko were going to discuss Russia's possible compensation of the damage that its contaminated oil had inflicted.
The problem with the quality of oil coming from Russia to Belarus through the Druzhba pipeline of the Russian state-owned Transneft oil transport monopoly arose in April. Poland and Ukraine halted oil transit from Russia via Belarus after it had been discovered that the transported oil was contaminated with chlorides. Russia has launched an investigation into the matter and has so far detained four people over the incident. Uncontaminated Russian oil reached the Belarusian border on May 2.
Ukrainian oil transport company Ukrtransnafta said on May 11 that it had resumed Russian oil transit to the European Union via the Druzhba pipeline.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that the damage done by contaminated Russian oil amounts to hundreds millions of Dollars, adding that the final figure will be announced after an audit.
