According to media reports and the company’s website press release on October 12, 2022, a leak in a section of the Druzhba oil pipeline is likely accidental, a Polish energy official says. But the report has fueled security fears after gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea suffered suspected sabotage.
Polish pipeline operator PERN said on Wednesday that its automated detection systems had found a leak in one line of the Druzhba oil pipeline, which carries oil from Russia to Europe.
PERN said that it was still unclear what might have caused the leak, which was detected on Tuesday evening.
However, Poland's top official in charge of energy infrastructure, Mateusz Berger, told Reuters news agency that "we can talk about accidental damage."
In a statement on its website, PERN said the leak was located some 70 kilometers (44 miles) from the western city of Plock and was on the main route transporting crude oil to Germany.
"The cause of the incident is not known for the moment. Pumping in the affected line was immediately stopped. Line 2 of the pipeline is functioning normally," PERN said.
A spokeswoman for the Czech pipeline operator MERO said no change in flows to the Czech Republic had been detected.
Concerns about energy security
The reports come after blasts caused severe damage to pipelines carrying Russian gas in the Baltic Sea, raising fears that critical energy infrastructure could be in danger of sabotage amid tensions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Europe could face a severe energy crisis this winter after Russia cut gas deliveries in what many see as a "weaponization" of energy supplies.
The Druzhba oil pipeline transports Russian oil to much of central Europe, including Germany, Poland, Belarus, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria.
Its name means "friendship" in Russian.
About PERN
PERN S.A. is the country’s leading company in crude and fuel logistics and a strategic company that guarantees the energy security of Poland, and thus the European Union, in terms of oil supplies. The company's core business is the operation of a network of pipelines to transport crude oil for the largest producers.
Druzhba Pipeline at a glance
Druzhba Pipeline is one of the biggest crude oil pipeline networks in the world. The total length of the pipeline system including all its branches is around 5500 km. The official beginning of the Druzhba network is in Almetyevsk in the Russian Federation, where pipelines carrying crude oil from Siberia, the Urals and the Caspian Sea meet. Druzhba runs to Mozyr in Belarus, where it splits into a northern and a southern branch. The northern branch continues via Belarus and Poland to Germany. The southern branch runs through Ukraine, splitting in Uzhgorod into Druzhba 1 continuing to Slovakia (where it splits again and goes to the Czech Republic in one branch and Hungary in another) and Druzhba 2 continuing to Hungary. The current capacity of Druzhba is 1,2–1,4 million barrels a day, with possibility to increase up to 2 million barrels a day.
History of Druzhba Pipeline
The decision to construct a crude oil pipeline from the (then) USSR to its ally countries joint in the socialist bloc was taken by the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance convening in Prague in December 10, 1958. The construction started in 1960, with each country responsible for their section (the pipeline became a property of that country).
Pipes were manufactured in the Soviet Union and Poland, valves and fittings in Czechoslovakia. The German Democratic Republic delivered pumps and Hungary provided automation and communications equipment. The pipeline cost approximately 400 million rubles to build. More than 15 million cubic meters of earth were moved to lay down 730 000 tons of pipe. Druzhba crossed 45 major rivers on its road to Central Europe. The whole pipeline was put into operation in October 1964.
