Russia says Druzhba-1 pipeline needs more time

  • 2006-10-11
  • Staff and wire reports
VILNIUS - Russia will be unable to fix a broken pipeline that supplies crude to Lithuania's starved refinery at Mazeikai until experts learn more about what caused the rupture and develop a plan. Although an answer is expected by February or March, the oil may not begin flowing until later.

"We are working on it, and we are on schedule," Sergei Grigoriyev, vice-president of Transneft, Russia's oil pipeline monopoly, told AFP on Oct. 5. "After we understand what caused the problem, we can determine how to fix it."
Druzhba-1 provides a direct connection of Russian crude to Lithuania's Mazeikiu oil refinery, a facility once controlled by the bankrupt Russian oil giant Yukos, which was acquired this year by Poland's PKN Orlen.

The pipeline was shut down following a break that occurred last July in a section located in western Russia.
Grigoriyev said the Russian infrastructure safety agency Rostekhknadzor had ordered Transneft and a state scientific institute to carry out a full-scale joint study to determine if the July rupture was due to excessive pressure levels in the pipeline.
"This involves taking parts of the pipeline apart to verify technical aspects of its construction and is a time-consuming process," Grigoriyev said.

Lithuanian authorities have expressed displeasure with the delay. In August, Lithuania warned Russia that it may impose restrictions on rail freight that travels through Lithuania to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, the headquarters of Russia's Baltic Fleet.
Grigoriyev dismissed the warning as "politics."