Poland detected a leak in an oil pipeline that connects Russia with Germany and supplies crude oil to Europe

The Warsaw operator, PERN, confirmed that the leak occurred near the town of Zurawice, 180 km west of the country’s capital, and affected one of the two pipeline lines.

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 causes of the incident are not known at this time. Pumping on the damaged line was immediately stopped. Line 2 of the pipeline works normally,” PERN said in a statement, specifying that the leak was detected on Tuesday night.

The area, to which PERN experts and fire services have traveled, has been secured until further notice.

Druzhba is the main pipeline that transports Russian oil to Germany.

“This part of the main pipeline carries crude destined for two German refineries: PCK Raffinerie GmbH Schwedt and TOTAL Raffinerie Mitteldeutschland GmbH in Spergau,” PERN spokeswoman Katarzyna Krasinska said on Wednesday.

“The emergency actions are underway. All services are in place, ”she added, quoted by the local PAP agency.

The leak occurred near the town of Zurawice, 180 km west of Warsaw.

Construction of the Druzhba pipeline, whose name means “friendship”, began in the 1960s.

It has a 5,500-kilometre network that transports oil from the Urals to refineries in Poland and Germany.

The incident occurred after leaks appeared at the end of last month in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, which pass through the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Around 35% of the crude imported by Germany last year came from Russia. But that percentage has shrunk after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the country is now focused on leaving Ukraine entirely before a European Union embargo on most Russian imports takes effect.

The German government last month took control of three refineries owned by Russia’s Rosneft, which account for around 12% of Germany’s oil-refining capacity.

RUSSIAN CONFIRMATION

Russia also reported an oil leak on the Polish section of the Druzhba pipeline near the German border on Wednesday, Warsaw notified Russian authorities.

“The leak is in Poland, near the border with Germany,” said the vice president of Transneft, the manager of the Russian pipeline network, Sergei Andronov, according to the official TASS agency.

“They said they would notify us about the removal (of the leak). No one says anything about the time (of repair) yet, they have to pump the oil, it’s a whole process,” Andrónov said.

The Druzhba pipeline departs from the Russian city of Samara and reaches the Belarusian city of Mozyr, from where two branches leave: one passes through Poland, Germany, Latvia and Lithuania, and another reaches Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Croatia .

The depressurization occurred on the night of October 11, 70 kilometers from the city of Plock, in central Poland.

The oil enters Germany through this section. The causes of the incident are still unknown.

The damaged thread was immediately disabled, the second continues to work, according to TASS