No oil has flowed into Europe through the southern part of the pipeline since Thursday. It crosses Ukrainian territory. On the other hand, deliveries continue via the northern “Druschba” (“Friendship”) route, which passes through Belarus and Poland to Germany.
Russian monopolist of the Transneft pipeline blamed Ukraine for the delivery stop: “Actually, (Ukrainian company) Ukrtransnafta completed pumping oil to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline on August 4 at 6:10 am in the morning. ,” Transneft announced on Tuesday, according to Russian state news agency Ria Novosti. Initially, there was no confirmation from the Ukrainian side.
Payment should have been returned
According to Transneft spokesman Igor Djomin, the end of transit is related to payment issues: Ukraine is demanding advance payment for transit of Russian oil, but payments made by Transneft have been rejected because of new European sanctions. . According to the information, payments to Ukrtransnafta were made on July 22, but the money came back on July 28 because the payment was not completed.
Graphics: APA/ORF.at; Source: APA/Bruegel
According to Gazprombank, which processed the payment, the money was returned due to EU restrictions. Russia typically delivers around 250,000 barrels a day through the southern branch of the pipeline.
Gas contingency plan in place
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU Commission has been trying to drastically reduce dependence on Russian supplies. The European gas emergency plan has been in place since Tuesday. The regulation provides for a voluntary winter natural gas savings of 15% per country compared to the five-year average for that period.
How the 27 EU countries reduce their demand is up to them. The regulation provides numerous exceptions for states and “critical sectors of the economy”, such as the food industry. In recent weeks, Russia has throttled gas deliveries to Europe, and the Kremlin has completely shut off gas supplies to some EU countries.
looking for alternatives
After lengthy discussions, EU member states agreed to a gradual oil embargo against Russia on the oil issue. According to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Russian oil imports are expected to be reduced by 90% by the end of the year. Germany and Poland want to run out of pipeline oil anyway, and according to Austria, it said it had already completely abandoned Russian oil imports in March.
Pipeline deliveries account for around a third of imports into the EU as a whole. However, they are extremely important for landlocked countries that cannot be supplied by ship.
The countries now affected by the delivery stop, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, have made extensive exceptions to the embargo, citing their heavy dependence. Pipeline deliveries continued to be possible, so Russian oil could – at least theoretically – flow through Druzhba for years to come. But alternatives would also be possible to make EU states independent from Russia. For example, Hungary could be supplied by expanding a Croatian gas pipeline. The Czech Republic, on the other hand, is committed to expanding the “Transalpine Pipeline” (“TAL”), which brings oil from Italy through Austria to the Czech Republic.