Supplies of Russian oil to Czechia via Druzhba pipeline continuing, country also has other abilities to supply its refineries - operator
MOSCOW. Nov 16 (Interfax) - Supplies of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline to the Czech Republic are continuing, Czech operator MERO said in a statement.
"Supplies of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline have been temporarily halted in the direction of Slovakia due to the power outage in Ukrainian territory. No interruption of crude transport to the Czech Republic has yet occurred," the statement said.
"We are at the moment carefully monitoring the elaboration of a solution in the situation that has unfolded. We are in constant contact with operator of the Slovak section of the Druzhba oil pipeline Transpetrol and our client, the owner of domestic refineries, Orlen Unipetrol," Jaroslav Pantucek, president of MERO's board of directors, was quoted as saying in the statement.
"If supplies of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline to the Czech Republic are interrupted, the continuous operation of domestic refineries won't suffer at all. Operating stocks of oil at the central oil tank farm in Nelahozeves and the state emergency reserves, whose volume is enough until transport through the Druzhba oil pipeline is restored, are ready to supply the refinery in Litvinov if necessary. The IKL oil pipeline and the TAL oil pipeline connected to it, where there are currently available capacities, can still be used to supply the Czech Republic's refineries," the statement said.
"Thanks to this variety, the Czech Republic has an advantage over other countries that are dependent only on Druzhba," Pantucek said.
Hungary's MOL told Interfax the evening of November 15 that supplies of oil through Druzhba to Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia had been suspended. In its remarks, the company refers to an explanation provided by the operator of the Ukrainian oil transport system that Russian artillery shelled a transformer station which supplies power to the Druzhba oil pipeline's pumping station, in Ukraine near the border with Belarus.