How Russia contaminated $2.7 billion in oil exports to Europe
It was a quiet Easter holiday at the offices of major European oil companies and refiners when an email in Russian landed. "What the hell does it say?" one manager recalled thinking as he sent it to his Moscow office for translation.
He was in for a shock.
The letter was from the state pipeline company in Belarus, Gomeltransneft, telling oil refiners and pipeline operators in Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic that the crude heading toward them from Russia down the 3,400-mile Druzhba pipeline network was heavily contaminated.
"We ask you to immediately take all measures to avoid potential losses and other negative consequences," said the Gomeltransneft letter dated April 19 and seen by Reuters.
For the next 10 days, refiners and oil firms in Europe cut purchases of Russian oil by up to a million barrels a day, or 10 percent of European oil imports, in a major disruption to supply from the world's second largest oil exporter.
The disruption sent oil to a six-month high above $75 a barrel, tarnished Russia's reputation as an exporter at a time of rising competition with U.S. oil sales and triggered a Russian probe into whether the pipeline had been sabotaged.
As the crisis entered its 11th day Tuesday, oil buyers had yet to hear directly from Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft, the owner of the network that exported the tainted oil, 10 sources at Western oil firms and trading houses said.
-more-
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/how-russia-contaminated-dollar27-billion-in-oil-exports-to-europe/ar-AAAJUcj?li=BBnb7Kz
