Oil will start flowing in Slovakia within a few hours
Updated at 3:56 p.m.: Richard SulĂk informed that he is already in the territory of the Slovak Republic.
Economy Minister Richard SulĂk reported on the social network that oil will flow through the Druzhba pipeline in the next few hours. “The problem was a bank transaction, for which neither Ukraine nor Russia can be blamed. I’ll keep you posted on the launch.”
During a press conference on August 10, Richard SulĂk stated that the stoppage of oil deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline was not the fault of the Ukrainian or Russian side. He also claimed that “someone somewhere fudged the numbers, that’s why there were short oil supply shutdowns”.
According to him, an error occurred in one of the small branches of banks in the territory of Western Europe, which was processing payment for transit. “They evaluated and evaluated and announced that they would not release that payment,” explained SulĂk.
Due to the fact that the payment was returned, the Ukrainian side stopped the transportation of oil. As SulĂk assessed, it was a technical matter. Oil in Slovakia stopped flowing last week on August 4, and it was the fourth interruption since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
Slovnaft paid
However, as SulĂk pointed out, Slovakia has enough supplies for approximately four months. Currently, things have moved and the payment was made by Slovnaft through a Slovak bank. It was a sum of up to 10 million euros. This solution should work by the end of August. Until then, a longer-term solution should be found.
According to the latest information, the Slovak refinery Slovnaft paid the transit fees for the transportation of oil through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline after the consent of Ukraine and Russia.
CTK Slovnaft spokesman Anton MolnĂĄr informed about it. The export of oil from Russia is ensured by the monopoly exporter Transneft. He announced on Tuesday that the payment for the August transit, which was sent to the Ukrainian company Ukrtransnafta in July, was returned to his account.
According to Gazprombank, which is in charge of the payments, the money was returned due to restrictions by the European Union. Ukraine then stopped the transit of Russian oil.
At the moment, according to SulĂk, we do not have the possibility to buy fuel elsewhere than in Russia. Slovakia cannot use the products of the other two world manufacturers.
“At the moment, I don’t have anything like that on offer, it’s being worked on feverishly. I don’t want to have a lot of stock,” evaluated.
Sulik also commented on the steps taken by some European states, which are beginning to limit the supply of electricity and gas. He called them extraordinary solutions. He confirmed that the already publicized memorandum with SlovenskĂ© elektrĂĄrĆa had been finalized into a final contract.
They have currently sent it to Brussels for notification. They are expecting in November. He is also working on changing the decree of the Office for the Regulation of Network Industries, which will allow the Slovak gas industry to enter into four-year gas supply contracts.
Prices oil on Tuesday. September deliveries of light American oil lost 26 cents to close at $90.50 a barrel. October deliveries of North Sea oil Brent fell 34 cents to $96.31 a barrel. However, the wholesale price of gasoline in the US market rose by 7 cents to $2.96 per gallon.
Precious metal prices developed mixed. Gold was up $7.10 at $1,812.30 an ounce, but silver was down 13 cents at $20.48 an ounce. SITA informed about it.
Sources: CTKSITES