MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft and producer Rosneft have reached a settlement with Total over dirty oil supplies to the French company’s Leune refinery in Germany, Transneft said, as per Reuters.
Up to 5 MM tons of Russian oil in route to central Europe via the Druzhba pipeline were found to be contaminated last year. Total declared a force majeure in June 2019 on the production of jet fuel at its Leuna refinery in Germany following the supply of contaminated crude from Russia.
Transneft did not disclose how much compensation would be paid to Total. The pipeline operator, headed by Nikolai Tokarev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had said it would pay compensation of no more than $15 per barrel.
It had been agreed that buyers such as BP, Shell , Total, Eni and PKN Orlen would put forward claims to Russian suppliers, while Transneft agreed to bear the brunt of the contamination-related costs. Russian exporters, such as Rosneft, would then address buyers’ claims to Transneft for compensation.
Transneft has compensated Hungary’s MOL and all the Kazakh companies affected by crude oil contamination in its pipelines. Organic chlorides were found in Urals crude export flows in late April last year.
As MRC informed earlier, PJSC Tatneft’s Tatneftegazpererabotka (UTNGP) is adding a new unit as part of an ongoing modernization program at its Minnibayevo gas processing plant (MGPP) in Tatarstan’s Almetyevsk region. Recently approved for its permit to build, the project includes construction of a normal butane (n-butane) processing unit and associated off-site installations within the boundaries of the existing MGPP complex.
We remind that Russia's output of products from polymers grew in August 2020 by 4.1% year on year. However, this figure increased by 1.9% year on year in the first eight months of 2020, reported MRC analysts. According to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, August production of unreinforced and non-combined films rose to 126,300 tonnes from 118,200 tonnes a month earlier. Output of films products grew in January-August 2020 by 8.3% year on year to 863,200 tonnes. August production of non-porous polymer boards, sheets and films exceeded 38,700 tonnes versus 36,400 tonnes in July. Thus, overall output of these products reached 271,900 tonnes over the stated period, up by 3.5% year on year.
MRC