Sechin: Europe will not be left without oil

There will be no problems with pumping oil to Europe, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin told reporters. It is reported by RBC. According to Sechin, in December, the Naftogaz Ukraine division appealed to AK Transneft with a proposal to change the current oil pump and tariff pumping regime with an introduction of a number of additional conditions. Transneft after that turned to the government. “We informed the European commission and stopped negotiations with the Ukrainian side. She began to perceive our proposals more flexibly,” Sechin said. “It seems that there will be no problems with pumping.”

According to Deputy Prime Minister, the transit of Russian oil to Europe at the beginning of the new year will be carried out even without contracts with Ukraine.

Ukraine, in particular, proposed in case of reducing the volume of pumping to reduce to 30 days the term of change in the pumping agreement. “But we propose to set a term of up to 60 days,” the Deputy Prime Minister said, explaining that this is due to the technology of oil pumping. He expressed the hope that the Ukrainian side would accept this proposal.

The transit of Russian oil to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic is carried out through the territory of Ukraine for the Friendship oil pipeline.

A day earlier, the Slovak government announced that Russia warned the European Union about the possible termination of oil supplies to these three countries due to disagreements with Ukraine. "The Government of Slovakia, in accordance with the previously reached agreements on the early warning system, was informed by a letter from the Russian Ministry of Energy that oil supplies to three EU countries may arise due to unresolved disagreements between the Russian Federation and Ukraine about oil transit," the statement of the Cabinet of Ministers said.

The Druzhba pipeline with a length of about six thousand kilometers is the largest pipeline system in the world. The northern section of the oil pipeline passes through the territory of Belarus, Poland and Germany, and the South - Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. According to the "friendship" to the countries of the near and far abroad, almost half of the Russian oil exports is exported. In recent years, according to the main, western, direction of the oil pipeline system, up to 70-80 million tons per year is pumped.