Druzhba pipeline

The oil pipeline friendship or Druzhba pipeline ( from the Russian word Дружба, transliterated Druzhba ) is a pipeline that extends from Almetyevsk in Tatarstan beginning through Belarus and Poland to Schwedt / Oder (Northern line), which also includes the Total refinery in Spergau, a district of Leuna, and supplied in Bohlen south of Leipzig the chemical plant of Dow Chemical with oil.

The south sleeve of the line branches at Mazyr from Belarus and leads to the Czech Republic and further to Slovakia to Hungary.

The pipeline was built from 1959-1964 by the former CMEA countries. It connects the Russian oil fields with the European refineries and has a transport capacity of 2.5 million barrels per day. Later the line was extended further east to the West Siberian oil fields in the Tyumen Oblast. This reached its length up to the German border town of Schwedt 5327 km. It is operated by the company Transneft or in Belarus Gomel Transneft through.

History

On the Tenth Meeting of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA ) in December 1958 in Prague, the construction of an oil pipeline was decided. On July 17, 1963, the oil pipeline reached the EVW (petroleum processing plant, today's PCK refinery ) in Schwedt / Oder. On 18 December 1963 Walter Ulbricht opened the line officially. 1973 a second line was put into operation. Today's German customers are companies in Schwedt and Leuna Bohlen. The oil from the Soviet Union was paid on barter, while the GDR from selling manufactured petroleum products on the world market against foreign currencies. In the second half of the seventies, the Soviet Union increased as a result of the oil crisis, the price of oil for its Eastern European customers and early eighties even lowered them the amount of crude oil from 19 to 17 million tons.

In the so-called energy dispute between Russia and Belarus in early 2007, the operator Transneft locked on 8 January 2007 temporarily the beginning of the pipeline, to force the White Russians to abandon the planned transit control in the West. Among the oil purchasers of them were especially Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Germany affected. For the Federal Government, this was a repeated occasion, the dependency on Russia to decrease (20 % of requirements ), which has not yet ratified the Energy Charter of 1994. After two days of Belarus took the transit tax on Russian oil back. On the morning of the 11th January 2007, Germany again reached oil through the pipeline.

Because of Kalistreits between Uralkali (Russia) and Belaruskaly ( Belarus ) about the sudden dissolution of a cartel Russia has the supplies in the pipeline by 1 /4 ( 400,000 t) shortened, which was attributed to maintenance. This throttling is to be continued in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Course

The oil pipeline transports crude oil from Russia via three strands to Western Europe. In Mazyr in Belarus, the line is divided into a northern and a southern section. The northern part runs through Poland to the vicinity of Schwedt in Germany and consists of two parallel lines. The southern section is divided in Ukraine, said a section through Slovakia leads to the Czech Republic and the other section on Hungary connecting the Adriatic Pipeline. The northern section has a capacity of one million barrels per day and the southern section of 1.2 million barrels per day.

Use

The German main users of the pipeline, the PCK refinery in Schwedt and the Total refinery in Leuna central Germany, which is connected via a pipeline of Mineralölverbundleitung Schwedt on the oil pipeline friendship. Be transported to Schwedt per year a total of about 22 million tonnes of western Siberian oil. Meanwhile, the route is in need of renovation in parts and it always comes back to significant pollution.

Quotes

• About the blocking of the oil pipeline in January 2007: "We have nothing to worry about! This conflict to world market prices between Russia and Belarus has no appreciable impact on Germany. Unlike the gas we have the oil, many alternative sources of supply and variety of storage and transport facilities. " ( Utz Claassen, CEO of EnBW)