A refinery located next to the Druzhba pipeline as it passes through Belarus, in an image from 2013. /
The operating company points to an accident as the cause of the incident, at a time of maximum tension due to sabotage of key infrastructure such as the Nord Stream gas pipelines
The Polish authorities are investigating an oil leak in the Druzhba pipeline, key to the supply of crude oil to central Europe, without for now being able to determine the causes of the incident, detected on Tuesday night.
The leak is located about 70 kilometers from the city of Plock and affects one of the two lines of the pipeline, according to a statement from the Polish operator, PERN, which has confirmed that the unaffected branch is operating normally.
Druzhba is the main pipeline that transports Russian oil to Germany. It has a 5,500-kilometre network that transports oil from the Urals to refineries in Poland and Germany. Another branch of the pipeline carries Russian oil to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
The area, to which PERN experts and fire services have traveled, has been secured until further notice.
The operating company expects to know the exact causes of this incident in a matter of hours, although the main person in charge of Poland’s strategic energy infrastructure, Mateusz Berger, has stated that for now there is nothing to point to causes other than a accident.
If so, the hypothesis of sabotage would be ruled out, at a time of particular concern in Europe due to the recent attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.
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