OIL PRICE | Published December 2, 2029
Poland has shut down a branch of the Druzhba pipeline after detecting a leak, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing Polish media and the local firefighting service that responded to the leak report.
The Druzhba pipeline carries Russian crude to Central Europe. Germany buys it in Poland for two of its refineries, one of them formerly owned by Russia’s Rosneft.
Later in the day, Reuters cited Polish pipeline operator PERN as saying the partial shutdown of the pipeline had not affected crude oil deliveries to clients using the Druzhba pipeline.
Central European EU members have been trying to reduce their dependence on Russian crude in the wake of the Ukraine war but this has proven tricky because of the lack of readily available alternatives. One of these has been the replacement of Russian crude flows with Kazakh oil, to feed into Germany’s Schwedt refinery.
This is not the first leak in Druzhba’s Polish section. In August last year, PERN had to shut off a section of the pipeline following the detection of a leak.
The Druzhba pipeline is a key artery of oil supply from Russia to Europe, with two branches – a northern one via Belarus that supplies Belarus, Poland, Germany, Latvia, and Lithuania, and a southern one passing through Ukraine and sending oil to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Croatia.
Flows through the Druzhba pipeline were exempted from the EU embargo on imports of Russian crude oil by sea that came into effect on December 5, 2022. The EU has exempted pipeline oil flows to landlocked EU member states from the ban.
Nevertheless, Germany and Poland said last year they would halt imports of Russian crude via the Druzhba pipeline as of January 1, 2023. Germany did it on the first day of the year, following through on a previous pledge to stop buying Russian pipeline crude despite the fact that the EU embargo exempts pipeline flows from Russia to Europe. For Hungary and Slovakia, however, Russian oil remains essential.
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SOURCE: www.oilprice.com
RELATED: Poland shuts down Druzhba pipeline section after oil leak
PERN SA crude oil tanks are pictured a few dozen kilometers from Lotos Oil Refiner on June 6, 2022, in Gdansk, Poland. (Omar Marques/Getty Images)
KYIV INDEPENDENT| Published December 2, 2029
Supply to customers was not affected by a leak on one of the branching pipes of the Russian Druzhba pipeline in Poland, the Polish operator Pern said in a statement on Dec. 1.
The communist-era-built Druzhba pipeline was used to transport oil from Russia to Europe through its two main branches, supplying central Europe through its southern pipeline and northern Europe through the northern pipeline.
Poland has not purchased Russian pipeline oil since early 2023. Druzhba’s northern pipeline now mainly transfers oil arriving at its port of Gdansk, supplying Kazakh crude to Germany.
A leak in one of Poland’s pipes on the northern branch caused its operator, Pern, to halt deliveries and reroute the supply earmarked for Germany.
The leak did not affect the quantity of the supply as the second branch’s “technical capabilities fully cover the volume needs of customers,” the operator said in its statement.
The cause of the leak is unknown and will be investigated, the statement added.
The EU has banned imports of Russian pipeline oil in response to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with only Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary granted exemptions due to their dependence on Russian supplies.
Russian oil continues to transit to Czechia through Poland via the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline.
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SOURCE: www.kyivindependent.com
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