Three countries have already refused to accept black gold through the Druzhba pipeline: Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany. They point to the high toxicity of the surrogate, which damages expensive equipment at the refinery, and threatens to be an environmental catastrophe in the event of an industrial accident. It is noted that European plants will use the already existing oil reserves.
According to Reuters that refers to traders, the suspension of imports may trigger legal claims from Western buyers against Russian suppliers, which in turn will demand compensation from Transneft. The Russian pipeline monopoly hopes for a quick resolution of the problem. Its representatives will arrive in Minsk for talks tomorrow. According to preliminary estimates, the damage already exceeds hundreds of millions of dollars.
