PERN revealed pumping on the damaged Druzhba line, which delivers oil to Germany, was immediately switched off and the scene had been secured.
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Polish pipeline operator PERN said Wednesday that a leak detected on one of its Druzhba hose bringing oil from Russia to Europe was likely caused by an accident.
The leak was detected on Tuesday evening on one of the two lines of the Western fraction of the pipeline, PERN said in a statement. The incident occurred roughly 70 kilometers (about 43 miles) from the pre-eminent Polish city of Plock.
PERN said pumping on the damaged line, which delivers oil to Germany, was immediately diverted off and the scene had been secured. Pumping through the other line continued as normal, the company said.
The cause of the to-do is not yet known, but the Polish government said the damage caused was probably accidental.
Mateusz Berger, Poland’s top official in sortie of energy infrastructure, told Reuters via telephone that there were no grounds to believe the leak was caused by ruin. “Here we can talk about accidental damage,” Berger said.
The Druzhba pipeline, which translates as “friendship” in Russia, is one of the weightiest oil pipeline networks in the world, delivering crude from Russia to much of central and eastern Europe including Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Belarus, Poland and Slovakia.
It get just over two weeks after a series of blasts on two subsea gas pipelines connecting Russia to Germany triggered what superiority be the single largest release of methane in history.
Nord Stream gas leaks
An initial crime scene investigation led by Sweden’s resident security service said the gas leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines reinforced suspicions of “gross sabotage.”
Many in Europe have a sneaking suspicion the Nord Stream gas leaks were the result of a deliberate attack, particularly as the blasts came amid a bitter dash standoff between the European Union and Russia.
The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed claims it destroyed the pipelines, calling such declarations “stupid” and “absurd,” and claiming that it is the U.S. that had the most to gain from the gas leaks.
The White House has denied any involvement in the suspected devour.
Climate scientists described the shocking images of gas spewing to the surface of the Baltic Sea as a “reckless release” of greenhouse gas emissions that, if think about, “amounts to an environmental crime.”
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Oil prices traded higher on Wednesday morning.
Cosmopolitan benchmark Brent crude futures traded 0.5% higher at $94.80 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Medial futures stood at $89.66 a barrel, up around 0.3%.