BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

08/01/2007

Poland reports stop in Russian crude oil supplies via Belarus

WARSAW. Jan 8 (Interfax-Central Europe) - Russian crude oil supplies to Poland were halted Monday, Polish representatives have announced.

"There were some problems last night and all we can say now is that the crude oil does not flow through the Druzhba pipeline," Polish pipeline system operator PERN spokesman spokes Tomasz Zakrzewski told Interfax.

"We have sent questions to the Belarussian side about the reason for halting supplies and when they would be restored, but we have received no response yet," he said.

The Polish side will soon send similar questions to Russia's oil transporter Transneft.

Poland's top two fuel producers PKN Orlen and Grupa Lotos declined to comment on the halt of Russian crude oil supplies.

"We will comment on this in the early afternoon," PKN Orlen spokesman Dawid Piekarz told Interfax.

Lotos spokesman Maricn Zachowicz made a similar statement.

Transneft (RTS: TRNF) representatives contacted by Interfax have been unavailable for comments so far.

In the first quarter of this year Russian companies were planning to deliver 4.61 million tonnes of oil to Poland along pipelines and ship 1.2 million tonnes more by sea. ml

Source:

http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?menu=1&id_issue=11656636