Poor-quality Russian oil has damaged expensive equipment at the Mazyr refinery. To reduce the damage, the Russian state company “Transneft” will increase exports of high-quality oil through the “Druzhba” pipeline to the Navapolatsk refinery “Naftan”.
The oil supplied by Russia to Belarus was so bad that the equipment at the Mazyr refinery had to be dismantled. After unacceptably high content of organochlorine contaminants there appeared problems in heat exchange tubes in the primary air cooler of the main oil processing section. Specialists increased the flow of anticorrosive agents and reduced processing volumes. “Naftan” also had to change the processing mode.
“In recent years, Belarusian oil refineries complained of deteriorating quality of the Russian oil, but this 20 times drop in the oil quality standards is something new,” said Tatsiana Manyonak, observer from belrynok.by.
It is an emergency situation, a national operative meeting of the oil industry management and deputy prime minister took place on Sunday at Naftan. The representative of “Transneft”, in whose presence the analysis of raw materials was conducted, acknowledged that contamination of oil with chlororganics occurred at the site Samara — Unecha. Dirty oil fills not only a part of the Belarusian “Druzhba” pipeline which is 700 thousand tons, but also the 1,400 km of the Russian part. The recent deliveries of highly corrosive oil from Russia were noticed not only by Belarusians, but also by the whole of Eastern Europe. After all, high-quality raw materials goes to other markets.
“A significant amount of oil is diverted to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which has beene running for several years. There isn’t enough oil for the European recipients, and they have issues with the dirty oil,” explains Valeryia Kastsyuhova, editor of the “Our Opinion” website.
In such conditions, Belarus has suspended exports of oil products only to have enough for the domestic market.
“For now, the Belarusian side cannot fully calculate the losses, some problems are technical and will show during major refinery maintenance. However, it is stated that the financial losses may be tens to hundreds of millions of dollars,” Tatsiana Manyonak said.
All this is happening with the tax maneuver in place, which increases the cost of Russian oil to Belarus, and the modernization of both refineries, which was to end in November.
Last Friday, on April 19, in his address to the Belarusian people Alyakasndr Lukashenka urged the government:
“We need to do our best to complete the modernization of two refineries ahead of time, so that we did not have to walk around with outstretched hand, bowed to no one, and bought, like everyone else, the oil on the world market, processed it in-house and made a profit. “
Over the years of Lukashenka’s rule there have been various proposals from neighbors to establish a steady supply of crude oil from the Lithuanian and Ukrainian ports. But the head of state considered them unprofitable. As noted by Tatsiana Manyonak, now that Russian dirty oil has damaged Belarusian processing equipment, an emergency situation can be the time to review the formula for the supply of oil via “Druzhba”. Belneftekhim, in its turn, will compensate the new losses just like before — with a gradual increase in fuel prices.
Yaraslau Stseshyk, belsat.eu
