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Oil supplies to Belarusian refinery Naftan will be fully restored by July 28

Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Igor Lyashenko said that this is provided for by the Belarusian-Russian roadmap for the replacement of substandard oil in the Druzhba pipeline

© EPA-EFE/ANDREI LIANKEVICH

MINSK, May 25 / TASS/. The deliveries of conditional Russian oil to the Belarusian refinery Naftan via pipeline transport should be fully restored before July 28, said Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus, Igor Lyashenko on Friday.

According to him, this is provided for by the Belarusian-Russian roadmap for the replacement of substandard oil in the Druzhba pipeline. "We have agreed on specific dates when the oil in the threads will be completely replaced with the standard, high-quality. On July 28, the direction towards Naftan will be cleared for clean oil," BelTA quotes Lyashenko as saying. According to him, before that, the pipeline in the Polish direction will be cleaned of low-quality oil. "This will be the usual standard mode of operation both in the export direction and in terms of supplies to Naftan," said he.

Lyashenko also said that within 10 days the Belarusian-Russian working group will prepare proposals for the consideration of compensation, which will be provided to Minsk because of the situation with the supply of poor-quality Russian oil.

On April 19, the Belarusian petrochemical company Belneftekhim reported a sharp deterioration in the quality of the Russian oil running through the pipeline. Both Belarusian refineries - the Mozyrsky refinery (Gomel region) and Naftan (Vitebsk region) - reported the risk of equipment facing damage and almost halved the refining volumes. On April 23, Belarus was forced to halt exports of light oil products to Ukraine, Poland and Baltic countries due to deliveries of poor quality oil.

Poland, Germany, Ukraine and Slovakia suspended crude oil supplies from Russia through the Druzhba oil pipeline. The pollutant was revealed at the Samara-Unecha section. Russia’s Energy Ministry referred to technical issues as the reason for the contamination of the oil, saying that the problem would be ironed out quickly. A criminal case was initiated in connection with the incident.

Supplies of clean Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline to Belarus resumed on May 2. Ukraine resumed oil transit to Europe on May 11. Transneft pipeline operator reported that the supply of standard oil to Slovakia and Hungary will resume between May 21 and May 24. In the near future, the resumption of deliveries to Poland and Germany is also expected.

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