Pressure drops in second line of Druzhba oil pipeline - UPDATED

The pressure has dropped in the second line of the Druzhba oil pipeline, according to the German agency dpa, Report informs referring to the Economy Ministry of Brandenburg.

“There has been a drop in pressure in Druzhba, in particular, in the second line,” said minister Jorg Steinbach.

He noted that the causes of the accident are not yet known, an investigation is underway.

Meanwhile, Serbian Energy Minister Zorana Mihajlovic said that the incident at the Druzhba oil pipeline and other problems with Russian oil supplies look like a continuation of the events on the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

The oil leak from the Druzhba pipeline will continue for several more hours, a representative of the Polish State Fire Guard is quoted by Report.

"We hope that the leak will decrease in the next hours," Karol Kierzkowski, a spokesman for the chief commandant of the guards, said.

According to him, the oil pumping through the damaged line has already been suspended and the pressure in it is decreasing.

11:21

The local segment of the Druzhba oil pipeline experienced depressurization, Polish pipeline operator PERN said on Wednesday.

Report informs, citing TASS, that the Druzhba pipeline's depressurization was discovered on Tuesday late in the evening by automatic PERN systems on one of the two lines in its western section, 70 km from Plock, according to the report.

The company explained that oil is supplied to Germany through this section. At the moment, the cause of the incident is unknown.

According to the company, the second line of the pipeline, as well as other elements of PERN's infrastructure, are working as normal.

"At this point, all PERN services (technical, operational, in-house fire brigade and environmental protection) are taking action in accordance with the algorithms provided for this type of situation," the operator said.

Druzhba oil pipeline provides oil supplies to Belarusian refineries and its transit to Europe. The pipeline originates in Russia’s Samara region and branches into two sections - northern and southern, passes through Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania.