MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/. Russia's pipeline company Transneft has fully restored the operation of the Druzhba oil pipeline starting July 1 as planned, the company’s representative Igor Demin told TASS.

"Yes. As requested by freighters," Demin said when asked about restoration of operation.

The Druzhba pipeline provides oil supplies to 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 discovered at the Samara-Unecha section. Transneft said that the Russian oil in the Druzhba pipeline was contaminated deliberately. Law enforcement agencies initiated proceedings. Russia's Investigative Committee said that tainted oil was loaded into the Druzhba oil pipeline to conceal multiple oil thefts.

Supplies of on-spec oil to Belarus resumed in early May.

On June 3, the talks on settlement of the issue of supply of contaminated oil were held in Moscow, after which Russia’s Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin told reporters that all participants reached a common understanding of the principles for the calculation of compensations for supplies of off-spec oil.