Belarus Guarantees Less Than 7% Of Oil Transit Via Druzhba In May - Belneftekhim

Belarus will be able to provide less than seven percent of the planned transit volume via the Druzhba oil pipeline, Andrei Rybakov, CEO of the Belarusian State Concern for Oil and Chemistry (Belneftekhim) said Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2019) Belarus will be able to provide less than seven percent of the planned transit volume via the Druzhba oil pipeline, Andrei Rybakov, CEO of the Belarusian State Concern for Oil and Chemistry (Belneftekhim) said Tuesday.

"We can say that in May only less than seven percent of the transit will be provided compared to what we planned," Rybakov said in an interview with Belarus 1 television.�

According to Rybakov, about 1.2 million metric tons of contaminated Russian oil remains on the Belarusian territory, and it should be completely removed by the end of July.

�The problem with the quality of oil coming from Russia to Belarus through the Druzhba pipeline of the Russian state-owned Transneft oil transport monopoly arose in April.

Poland and Ukraine halted oil transit from Russia via Belarus after it had been discovered that the transported oil was contaminated with chlorides. Russia has launched an investigation into the matter and has so far detained four people over the incident. Uncontaminated Russian oil reached the Belarusian border on May 2.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that the damage done by contaminated Russian oil amounts to hundreds of millions of Dollars, adding that the final figure will be announced after an audit.