Leak detected in Druzhba pipeline that brings Russian oil to Germany
- A Polish official says it could be an accident, but authorities are looking at all possible causes
- The incident comes soon after leaks at the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas lines last month that were the result of an attack with explosives
An oil leak was detected on a pipeline in Poland that is the main route through which Russian crude reaches Germany, the pipeline’s Polish operator said on Wednesday.
The operator, Pern, said it detected a leak in the Druzhba pipeline on Tuesday evening 70km (45 miles) from the central Polish city of Plock. It said the cause of the leak was not known.
The incident follows leaks late last month in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines running along the Baltic seabed, and amid an energy stand-off between Russia and the West over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Denmark and Sweden say those natural gas pipelines were attacked with large amounts of explosives.
The Druzhba pipeline, which in Russian means “Friendship”, is one of the world’s longest oil pipelines. After leaving Russia, it branches out to bring crude to points including Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Austria and Germany.
02:17
‘Sabotage’ behind gas leaks in Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines, say EU, Nato officials
A Polish government security official, Stanislaw Zaryn, said the leak could be the result of an accident, but that officials were still investigating and were looking at all possible explanations.
“Different scenarios are possible. We don’t exclude any of them,” he said.
Firefighters were working in cornfields near the village of Zurawice to determine the exact point of the leak, according to a spokesman for firefighters, Brigadier Karol Kierzkowski.
He told the state news broadcaster TVP Info that around 400 cubic metres of spilled crude had been pumped out, and transmission along the line had been blocked off.
Nord Stream gas leak was ‘serious sabotage’, investigators say
Germany’s Economy Ministry said that Berlin’s supplies are currently secure, with two German refineries continuing to receive supplies via the Druzhba pipeline. It said reserves at those two refineries have been increased in recent weeks, and that both can, if needed, be supplied via the German port of Rostock and the Polish port of Gdansk.
Last year, Russia accounted for around 35 per cent of Germany’s crude oil supply. But that proportion has been reduced following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
Germany’s focus now is on phasing out the remaining supplies before a European Union embargo on most Russian imports goes into effect. Most Russian oil will be banned from December 5, with oil products to be banned from February 5.
A month ago, the German government took control of three refineries owned by Russian energy company Rosneft, which account for about 12 per cent of Germany’s oil refining capacity.
