Transneft chief sees poor prospects for restarting oil production pipeline through Ukraine
The head of Russian oil product pipeline operator Transneft sees little chance of restarting operation of an oil product pipeline in Ukraine.
"A court in Rivne [in Ukraine] ruled that [Transneft subsidiary] Transnefteprodukt had stolen diesel fuel from a Ukrainian pipeline," Transneft President Nikolai Tokarev said at a meeting of the pipeline monopoly's expert council.
The ruling involved about 140,000 tonnes of diesel fuel (including 100,000 tonnes owned by Lukoil and 40,000 tonnes belonging to Transneft), which the pipeline company following the court ruling tried to ship toward Hungary using a nitrogen plug.
"I do not see any prospects for anybody listening to our side," he said.
"We managed to get out 17,000 tonnes. The rest remains with them," he said. "It is simpler for us to close this pipeline, forget about it, since it was built in the 1970s," Tokarev said.
The Rivne court ruled in 2011 that a portion of the diesel fuel located on the 1,433-km Samara-West and Grozny-Armavir-Trudovoaya product pipelines, originally owned by Transneft subsidiary PrikarpatZapadTrans, belonged to the Ukrainian state.
