FRANKFURT- Russia remained Germany's top crude oil supplier in the first six months of 2019, but its exports fell 24% year-on-year after flows through the main Druzhba pipeline were halted between the end of April and June due to contamination issues, data showed.
Russia accounted for 30.5% of all oil receipts by Germany in January-June, but delivered 12.7 million tonnes after 16.6 million in the same 2018 period, according to a monthly statistics note from the BAFA foreign trade office.
There are lingering problems with the cleaning of pipelines and storage systems after excessive levels of organic chlorides, that can damage refineries, were found on Druzhba. Negotiations about compensation for customers are also ongoing.
Germany spent 18.2 billion euros ($20.21 billion) on crude imports in the period, 7.6% less than a year earlier, BAFA said.
The total import volume was 6.4% lower than a year earlier at 41.6 million tonnes, with Norway and Britain accounting for 24.5% of supply and OPEC members for 22.3%.
Libya and Kazakhstan were in fourth and fifth position.
Jan-June 2019 Jan-June 2018 Pct change
yr/yr Import bill 18.2 19.7 - 7.6% (bln euros) Import volume 41.6 44.4 - 6.4% (mln tonnes) Average border 437.42 443.20 - 1.3% price (euros/tonne)
* Allows for rounding errors
* Data on specific crude oil import origins can be found at:
($1 = 0.9007 euros)
(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise) ((vera.eckert@thomsonreuters.com; +49 69 7565 1228; Reuters Messaging: vera.eckert.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
