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Supplies of Russian crude oil to refineries in Europe have halted following a stoppage on the Druzhba ('Friendship') export pipeline arising from a dispute between Russia and Belarus. [nL09923878]
Following is the latest from various refineries and the IEA as of 1500 GMT on Tuesday:
IEA
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday that European oil markets would cope with the halt to Russian oil exports and that there was no immediate impact to any of the refineries in the countries involved as they all had working stocks of several days.
Should disruption from the Druzhba pipeline prove more prolonged, each of the refineries could source crude supplies from alternative routes and some of them are already organising alternative supplies, be it through ports at the Baltic Sea or through pipelines coming from other sources, the IEA added.
GERMANY
--Total
Total's refineries in Leuna continued to operate after supplies were halted in the night from Sunday to Monday, the company's spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
She also said the company bought one shipment of crude oil via Gdansk.
The refineries in Leuna receive about 10 million tonnes of crude oil per year through the Druzhba pipeline.
--Schwedt
Shell's PCK Raffinerie has bought crude oil via the German port of Rostock after supplies to its Schwedt refineries in Germany were halted, the company said on Tuesday.
It declined to say how many shipments of oil the company had bought or where they had come from, but said that the tanker has an 80,000-tonne capacity.
The refineries in Schwedt, which source 11 million tonnes of crude oil per year through the Druzhba pipeline, account for about 10 percent of Germany's refinery capacity.
HUNGARY
Hungarian oil and gas group MOL said on Monday that if Russian oil shipments via Belarus did not restart soon, it expected its pipeline to dry up by evening of that day.
The Hungarian government said it would free its 90-day oil reserves to keep supplies uninterrupted should the halt continue beyond 24 hours. It also said it was prepared to get further oil through a pipeline from the Adriatic sea, if needed.
POLAND
-- PKN Orlen
Polish PKN Orlen's refinery in Plock will maintain production. The refinery said it was ready to find alternative supplies either by using the country's strategic reserves or the oil terminal in Gdansk or through delivery by sea.
-- Lotos Group
Crude supplies to Lotos Group's refinery at Gdansk in Poland have been halted and the 90,000-barrels-per-day refinery said it would maintain full output until mid-February by using its own crude reserves for the first two weeks and the country's strategic supplies after that.
Lotos said it would be able to cover its full crude supplies by sea should the disruption continue beyond mid-February.
SLOVAKIA
Slovakia-based oil refiner Slovnaft, a unit of Hungary's MOL, said oil supplies were at a "sufficient level" at present, after oil flow through the Druzhba pipeline was halted on Monday evening.
Slovnaft said in a staement it had been monitoring the oil flow and was in in touch with the economy ministry, the State Reserves Administration and Transpetrol, which operates the Slovak part of the Druzhba pipeline.
The company also said it could get crude oil via the southern pipeline Adria running through Hungary. However, Slovnaft officials do not see significant extension of problems with oils supplies through Druzhba as likely, the company said.
CZECH REPUBLIC
The Czech Republic on Tuesday tapped a reserve of between 52,000 and 55,000 tonnes of crude oil stored in Slovakia, which will cover four days of its needs, officials said.
The government said the Czech Republic had more oil in strategic oil stocks, to cover about 100 days of its consumption. Local refineries had additional reserves.
The Czechs use mostly Russian oil but also pump oil from the IKL pipeline from Ingolstadt in Germany, which connects to the Italian port of Trieste.
The main Czech processor is Ceska rafinerska, majority-owned by Unipetrol . Shell , ConocoPhillips and ENI hold minority stakes.
((London energy desk, editing by Anthony Barker; agnieszka.flak@reuters.com; RM: agnieszka.flak.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: RUSSIA PIPELINE/FACTBOX
[Reuters/Finance.cz]