Transpetrol Registers Interruption of Oil Supplies via Druzhba Pipeline

       Bratislava, 13 February (TASR) - State-owned joint-stock company Transpetrol continues to report a temporary technical interruption in oil imports to Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline, TASR was told by spokesperson for the Economy Ministry Maria Pavlusik on Friday, adding that the current situation is having no impact on domestic market supplies, however, and the ministry will keep the public informed about further developments.
        "The Economy Ministry has been monitoring the situation since the beginning and is in contact with Transpetrol and [the] Slovnaft [refinery], as well as other entities involved in energy and crisis management at the state level," said Pavlusik.
        According to the spokesperson, the schedule for resuming supplies has been updated several times by the Ukrainians depending on technical developments in recent days. She said that the Economy Ministry, in cooperation with Transpetrol, is evaluating individual scenarios and is currently working on the basis of the latest announced date for resuming supplies - at the beginning of next week.
        Two weeks ago, Russia destroyed the Druzhba oil pipeline infrastructure in eastern Ukraine. This also halted oil supplies to Slovakia, according to MP for the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party Ivan Stefunko. He believes that energy supplies from Russia aren't reliable and are therefore not cheap.