Russia’s stateowned Transneft, the largest operator of Russia’s pipelines, said Tuesday that oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline were disrupted last week. Due to European sanctions against Moscow, the transit fee payment would not have reached UkrTransNafta, the Ukrainian company that operates the Druzhba, an oil pipeline that runs through Ukraine and delivers fuel HungarySlovakia and the Czech Republic.
According to Transneft, the transit fee was paid to UkrTransNafta, but the money came back because European banks are not allowed to make their own decisions about international payments from Russia due to European sanctions against Russia, and they need approval from national regulators to complete transactions.
The Russian stateowned company said it was trying to find ways to transfer the funds to the Ukrainian operator of the Druzhba pipeline. The flow of the pipeline on the northern link, which supplies Belarus, Poland and Germany, was also unaffected by the disruption, according to Transneft.
Russia does reduced significantly the supply of gas to the Germany. Claiming that it cannot obtain a turbine (sent to Canada for repair) from Nord Stream 1, it has cut gas supply to 20%.
European countries accuse Russia of using electricity as a defense weapon sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is the world’s second largest oil exporter and the top gas exporter, and Europe is heavily dependent on Russian oil, diesel, natural gas and coal. Energy prices have skyrocketed this year due to supply shortages as Europe struggles to replace Russian energy with alternative sources.