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Transneft: no disruptions of oil flows via Russia’s Druzhba pipeline

MOSCOW, March 20. /ITAR-TASS/. There are currently no problems with oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline, Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said on Thursday.

Nikolay Tokarev, the president of Transneft, said about 15 million tonnes of oil would be shipped through Ukraine’s portion of the Druzhba pipeline in 2014. He added that as in 2013, no provisions were made for oil supplies to Ukraine this year.

At the same time, the supply schedule approved by the Energy Ministry at the beginning of the year foresees supplies of 750,000 tonnes of oil to Ukraine’s Odessa refinery.

The Druzhba pipeline, also known as the ‘Friendship pipeline’, is one of the largest parts of Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft's system. It starts in central Russia and connects West Siberian oilfields to major refineries in Europe.

It has a capacity of over 2 million barrels per day (bpd), of which some 1.4-1.6 million bpd go directly to consumers in the European Union, while remaining volumes stay in Belarus.

The Druzhba pipeline splits into two legs with the bigger one, the northern leg, going to Poland and Germany. The southern leg of the Druzhba pipeline that runs through Ukraine supplies Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

In the event Russian oil supplies through Ukraine are disrupted, Transneft will ship oil via ports, such as Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and the Ust-Luga outlet near Russia's Baltic Sea port of Primorsk. However, diversifying exporting routes may lead to higher transit charges.