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Rosneft to consider shareholders’ interests when reimbursing damage for Druzhba incident

The company does not think it is appropriate to discuss the issue in public space

MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/. Russia’s biggest oil producer Rosneft, which had previously reported damage from this spring’s incident at the Druzhba oil pipeline, said that it would take into account the shareholders’ interests in reimbursing for that incident.

"Our shareholders’ interests will be protected in full under any circumstances. Nevertheless, as we have reiterated, we do not think it is appropriate to discuss the issue in public space," a spokesperson for the company told TASS.

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. Russia’s Investigative Committee said that contaminated oil was loaded into the Druzhba oil pipeline in order to conceal multiple oil thefts. Supplies of on-spec oil to Belarus resumed in early May.

In July, the Board of Directors of Transneft, Russia’s state-owned pipeline company, approved a procedure of settling the incident and endorsed the cap of compensations to shippers under oil transportation service agreements.

On Friday, Transneft reported about a reserve of 23 billion rubles to reimburse shipping losses for the incident at the Druzhba oil pipeline. Along with this, the company said, "The provision is not the Group’s unconditional legal obligation to reimburse shippers. Recognition of provision does not mean that Transneft admits its responsibility for third parties actions, which resulted in the ingress of substandard oil into the "Druzhba" oil trunk pipeline in April 2019.".