Russia condemns attack on Druzhba station

The Russian state company Transneft, which operates Russian pipelines, this Wednesday condemned an attack near the border with Ukraine on a supply station on the Druzhba pipeline, which carries oil to Europe.

“As a result of a projectile hitting the territory of the station, there were no victims, the damage is being repaired by repair teams. The Druzhba oil pipeline is operating normally,” Transneft spokesman Igor Demin told the official Russian TASS agency.

The Novozybkovo station, located in the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, starts up only during an overload, which happened last year, the source said.

In the same vein, Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov assured that the attack did not affect the functioning of Druzhba, which has two branches: northern (Belarus, Poland, Germany, Latvia and Lithuania) and southern (Ukraine). , Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia).

Bryansk governor Oleksandr Bogomaz on Tuesday evening blamed the Ukrainian army for the attack, which created a 20-meter crater.

According to the source, two nearby small villages were left without electricity for several hours.

The attack occurred just when Kazakhstan announced plans to supply Kazakh oil to Germany from the first half of February.

“Kazakh Energy Minister Bolat Akkulakov told EFE that the first batch of 20,000 tons will be delivered in the first half of February.

Demin said that the Druzhba oil pipeline is ready to supply Kazakh oil “through Russia, Belarus, Poland to Germany along the northern branch of Druzhba.”

European Union (EU) sanctions include an embargo on Russian oil shipped by sea and exceptions for oil shipped via pipeline to landlocked countries such as Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

It is estimated that Kazakhstan can transport up to 300,000 tons of crude oil via this route during the first quarter of 2023, out of the 1.2 million tons per year agreed by the Kazakh operator KazTransOil and Transneft.