Oil shipments to Belarus from Russia potentially halted?
The Druzhba pipeline, a crucial artery for oil supplies in Europe, has experienced a significant disruption due to Ukrainian strikes on Russian facilities. The attacks have targeted pumping stations near the Belarusian border, but no direct impact on Belarus’ oil supply or the Mozyr Oil Refinery has been reported.
The southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline, which supplies countries like Hungary and Slovakia, has been halted. This development is expected to cause supply interruptions to last at least five days or more. On the other hand, Belarus, which sits on the pipeline's northern route, remains unaffected.
The Mozyr Oil Refinery, a major refining facility in Belarus that depends heavily on Russian oil imports, has not reported any pipeline halts or damage on the northern branch supplying Belarus. Hungary and Slovakia, however, have explicitly complained of halted supplies. Germany, Kazakhstan, and by implication Belarus, have not reported interruptions.
The Druzhba pipeline, with its main hub located in Mozyr, Gomel region, has several pump stations on its objects, each with several pumps. The pipeline system also boasts duplicate equipment and oil storage facilities at linear production and dispatch stations. However, the outage of a transformer station is proving to be a significant challenge.
Russia's Deputy Minister of Energy, Pavel Sorokin, has confirmed that Russian experts are working on restoring the transformer station for the pipeline's operation. Sorokin also expressed uncertainty about when oil supplies will resume.
It is important to note that the Druzhba pipeline has faced similar challenges in the past. Ukrainian forces have attacked the pipeline before, but the company has managed to ensure uninterrupted oil supply to consumers. However, the current outage, following strikes on the Nikolskoye oil-pumping station in Tambov region, has resulted in a complete stop of oil supplies via the southern branch.
In a recent development, Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter Szijjarto, announced a halt to oil supplies to Hungary due to the pipeline attacks. Meanwhile, "Gomeltransneft Druzhba," the company responsible for the pipeline, has conducted a tactical special exercise to work out the operational plan for fire fighting on reservoir parks in Mozyr.
Sources:
- BBC News
- Reuters
- The Guardian
- Al Jazeera
- The Moscow Times
This assessment is based on the most recent publicly available reports from August 2025.
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