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Russia, Belarus to clean Druzhba pipeline without assistance from Poland

The spokesman for Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said that Russian oil supplies will resume "no later than mid-June"

© Svetlana Mayorova/TASS

MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/. Russia and Belarus have agreed to clean the Druzhba pipeline from contaminated oil without assistance of Poland, Ilya Dzhus, spokesman of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, told reporters.

He was commenting on the results of the talks Kozak held with his Belarusian counterpart Igor Lyashenko on Thursday.

Read also

Minsk and Moscow to start discussing oil supplies to Belarus in June — Belneftekhim

"Belarus’ constructive approach towards resumption of [oil] supplies to the west, made it possible to offset not very consistent actions of the Polish partners on elimination of consequences of the incident. According to the roadmap, the pipeline, up to the border with Poland, will be cleaned by Belarus and Russia without the participation of the Polish side," he said.

According to Kozak’s spokesman, the estimated time required to resume the supply of high-quality Russian oil to the border with Poland is "no later than mid-June." Dzhus confirmed that the deputy prime ministers agreed on all the technical details of the roadmap for cleaning the export pipeline system from contaminated oil.

After the talks, the Russian deputy prime minister discussed full resumption of oil supplies via the pipeline with representatives of oil companies and the Transneft oil pipeline operator.

Cleaning the Druzhba pipeline from crude contaminated oil with organochloride compounds is now the main topic on the agenda of stakeholders’ meetings.

On Thursday, Transneft held consultations with the Polish colleagues in Warsaw. The negotiations lasted for seven hours. According to Transneft Vice-President Sergei Andronov, a technical plan of measures approved by Transneft and the Belarusian side was offered to the Polish colleagues.

"The colleagues liked this plan. They took a short time to consider it," he told reporters. He also added that the implementation of the agreed measures should begin on May 24. If they are successful, the flow of clean oil to Poland can be expected on June 9-10.

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Belarus Oil & Gas Poland

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