Page 15 - FSUOGM Week 41

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Transeft, Rosneft agree compensation

with Total for dirty oil

RUSSIA RUSSIAN oil pipeline operator Transneft and crude deliveries.
producer Rosneft have agreed a settlement deal It has been agreed that international buyers
The Druzhba oil crisis with France’s Total over contaminated oil sup- such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Eni and
last year was the plies delivered last year to the latter’s Leuna refin- PKN Orlen who received tainted oil or otherwise
biggest disruption to ery in Germany. incurred losses owing to the disruption should
Russian oil exports on Some 5mn tonnes (36.7mn barrels) of Rus- file claims with their Russian suppliers, while
record. sian crude bound for central Europe via the Transneft has pledged to cover the bulk of the
Druzhba oil pipeline were found to have been contamination-related costs. Russian suppliers
contaminated in April last year by organic chlo- can then address buyers’ claims to Transneft for
rides – chemicals used to boost oil production compensation.
that can cause damage to refining equipment if Transneft has already provided compensa-
not removed beforehand. tion to Hungary’s MOL and all the Kazakh firms
Oil flows via Druzhba were halted after affected by the crisis.
refining units in Belarus were damaged by the While Russia’s Energy Ministry has blamed
chlorides. The disruption – the biggest ever to the Druzhba crisis on ethylene dichloride, an
Russian oil supply – led Total to declare force organic chloride that can erode refining equip-
majeure in June 2019 on jet fuel production at ment, Reuters reported in December last year
Leuna. that laboratory tests had identified the cause as
Transneft did not say how much compensa- carbon tetrachloride, a lethal chemical which is
tion would be paid to Total, although the state tightly controlled by an international agreement.
pipeline monopoly has said before it will provide Russian authorities have never confirmed this
no more than $15 per barrel for contaminated report, however. ™

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