FRANKFURT- German refineries PCK Schwedt and Leuna have started receiving clean Russian crude oil via the Druzhba pipeline, which was contaminated in April, oil industry group MWV said on Monday.
PCK Schwedt was receiving some oil, although not yet the full amount it had before the disruption caused by the contamination, a MWV spokesman said, citing the operator.
Full capacity would possibly be reached within days at PCK as pipeline capacity and supplies were being successively revved up, the spokesman added.
Oil flows to Leuna had also resumed, although there was no further detail on volumes going to the refinery in eastern Germany, the spokesman said.
Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft expects the Druzhba pipeline to resume full operations from July 1, TASS news agency reported on Friday.
The spokesman for MWV (Mineraloelwirtschaftsverband), which represents 21 member firms, 10 pipelines and 15 refineries at 11 sites, said it remained open when Druzhba would work at full capacity again as cleaning work was continuing.
Russia stopped west-bound flows to customers in April due to excessive levels of organic chloride on the pipeline which hit refiners in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine and Belarus.
In Germany, this resulted in Schwedt and Leuna re-arranging some crude oil volumes through the ports of Gdansk and Rostock, but being forced to work at reduced capacity.
(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Tassilo Hummel and Alexander Smith) ((vera.eckert@thomsonreuters.com; +49 69 7565 1228; Reuters Messaging: vera.eckert.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
