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Hungary receives clean oil through Druzhba

The oil reached the delivery point of Fenyeslitke at 16:45 Moscow time, a little earlier than the estimated time

MOSCOW, May 29 / TASS /. The conditional Russian oil has reached the delivery point in Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline, the Transneft spokesperson Igor Demin told reporters on Wednesday.

"Today, at 16:45 Moscow time, a little earlier than the estimated time, the conditional oil reached the delivery point (PSP) of Fenyeslitke (Hungary)," said Demin.

Earlier, Demin said that Transneft has pumped 163,000 tonnes of off-spec oil back from Belarus, adding that the pumping of clean oil via the Druzhba pipeline has been launched in Hungary. "A total of 163,000 tonnes have been pumped back from Belarus to Unecha as of 12:00 a.m. (Moscow time). The pumping started at Fenyeslitke (Hungary) at 12:10 a.m. (local time). The expected time of arrival of on-spec oil is 6:00 p.m. (local time)," he said.

The Druzhba oil pipeline provides supplies of oil to the Belarusian refineries and its transit to Europe through Belarus, Poland and Ukraine.

In mid-April, Belneftekhim reported a sharp deterioration in the quality of the Russian oil running through the pipeline. As a result, several states stopped receiving and refining the Russian oil. The contaminant source was revealed at the Samara-Unecha section. Transneft said that the Russian oil in the Druzhba pipeline was deliberately contaminated. Law enforcement agencies initiated a respective criminal case. Official spokesperson of the Russian Investigative Committee Svetlana Petrenko told reporters earlier that contaminated oil was loaded into the Druzhba oil pipeline in order to conceal multiple oil thefts.

Dmitry Kozak and Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Lyashenko have agreed on measures to clean the pipeline, so as the supplies of clean oil to Poland could be resumed by mid-June. Supplies of good quality oil to Belarus resumed in early May.