The Hungarian MOL and the Slovak Slovnaft paid off the debt of the Russian company Transfnet for the transit of oil through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline to Ukrtransnafta. The Russian side has already declared its readiness to resume oil pumping from 16:00 Moscow time, Igor Demin, adviser to the president of Transneft, reported this, RIA Novosti reports .
“At the moment we are preparing to start work. The Belarusian side also confirmed the opportunity to start working. We plan to start pumping along the Mikhalki-Brody section at 16:00,” a representative of the state-owned company said.
Demin noted that at the moment there is an accumulation of oil volumes in Brody, after which the oil will go to the Budkovtsy station and then to Feneshlitka, so the oil will first go to Slovakia, and only then to Hungary. Slovnaft said on Wednesday that it had agreed with MOL to pay off Transneft's debt to Ukrtransnafta for transit.
“The Ukrainian side reacted positively to the payment from our side, we expect the resumption of supplies in the coming days. The problem arose with the payment of transit from the Russian side due to banking nuances, however, the prompt intervention of Slovnaft and MOL made it possible to avoid interruptions in supplies, ”the Slovak company said in a statement .
Oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline stopped on August 4, but this became publicly known only on August 9. The Ukrainian side could not receive an advance payment from Transneft due to sanctions difficulties in processing payment – the correspondent bank refused to make the payment. Ukrtransnafta did not agree to transit without 100% advance payment.