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Full batch: emergency mode introduced in Romania due to contaminated oil from Azerbaijan
Emergency mode was introduced in Romania due to contaminated oil from Azerbaijan. Organic chlorides were found in it, substances that are used to increase production volumes. Previously, there were complaints about contaminated raw materials in the Czech Republic, British Petroleum and Italian Eni SpA. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
An emergency has been declared
"The Ministry of Energy has notified the European Commission and declared a crisis—level emergency," the Romanian Ministry of Energy said in a statement.
We are talking about the delivery of 92 thousand tons of Azerbaijani crude oil from July 16 to 18, which turned out to be contaminated with organic chlorides — they are usually used to increase production — at the Ceyhan shipping port located in Turkey.
This was reported to the country's ministry by OMV Petrom. Its management eventually decided to abandon the loading of another batch of 92 thousand tons after the analysis. As a result, the Petrobrazi refinery in Ploiesti did not receive 184 thousand tons of imported crude oil.
The Romanian authorities declared an emergency crisis situation so that the Ministry of Energy could transfer raw materials from the national reserve to the enterprise and ensure the continuity of its work.
Minister of Energy Bogdan Ivan assured that the fuel supply to the Romanian market is "stable and continuous." He noted that OMV Petrom faced difficulties in importing oil due to polluted transport last week. In order to avoid problems for the Petrobrazi refinery, the authorities decided to extract 80 thousand tons of crude oil and 30 thousand tons of diesel fuel from the national reserve.
The head of the Ministry of Energy assured that this volume is less than 5.5% of emergency reserves, and the reserve of more than 2 million tons will be replenished in a maximum of 60 days.
It's not the first time
Large volumes of Azerbaijani oil are supplied via the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline. This BTC Co. company, which built the pipeline, is managed by British Petroleum (BP Plc), the largest oil producer in Azerbaijan.
At the end of July, BP reported that some of the oil flowing through BTC got into fuel with organic chlorides, which are used to increase the extraction of raw materials. The receipt of some of the contaminated oil was also reported by the Italian Eni SpA.
At the end of July, Czech media also complained about contaminated oil with organic chlorides from Azerbaijan, which entered the Czech Republic via the TAL oil pipeline.
Azerbaijani political scientist, Doctor of Economics Ilgar Velizade, in an interview with Izvestia, noted that there was a rather unpleasant episode in the cooperation between Romania and Azerbaijan.
— Most likely, in the form of interdepartmental coordination, this incident and its consequences will be overcome. The energy cooperation between Baku and Bucharest is quite multifaceted, including the prospects for the supply of Azerbaijani gas and Azerbaijani electricity, especially green electricity," the expert explained.
According to him, large-scale projects are being implemented in these areas.
— No one is immune from such force majeure situations. But in general, this situation will not have a drastic impact on the implementation of large energy projects, where there are also interests of other participants, and the parties will in any case find an opportunity to resolve the problem, the expert is sure.
Without disagreements and conflicts
Kamran Hasanov, a senior lecturer at RUDN University, Doctor of Political Science at the University of Salzburg, explained in a conversation with Izvestia that relations between Romania and Azerbaijan reached the level of a strategic partner in the noughties.
— Azerbaijan is a traditional supplier of oil to Romania, it has oil storage facilities and a network of gas stations there. Romania has recently started receiving Azerbaijani gas through the Greece–Bulgaria interconnector," the analyst noted.
The political scientist believes that the detection of pollutants in oil is a rather unpleasant event, but he does not think that this relationship will somehow suffer.
— Firstly, because there are no political differences between the countries, Romania and Azerbaijan have never fought. Secondly, in the short term, Azerbaijan will still play a role in the Romanian gas market and plans to increase supplies. And thirdly, the countries are not vital partners of each other, the expert is sure.
The expert added that the trade turnover between the two countries is only $600 million.
— That is, neither Azerbaijan nor Romania are the main trading partners for Romania. In addition, Romania, as an EU country, adapts its policy to the common foreign policy of the European Union due to its economic dependence, the expert believes.
Archil Sikharulidze, founder of the SIKHA Foundation Research Institute, believes that Azerbaijani foreign policy is quite aggressive today.
—Azerbaijan is demonstrating confidence in trying to escalate the situation with Russia, so I think that if Baku sees that Bucharest is not behaving in the interests of Azerbaijan, then very aggressive rhetoric will follow," the political scientist believes.
In his opinion, the European Union "turns a blind eye to all the misdeeds of Azerbaijan for the sake of energy resources," as it counts on this Caucasian republic as at least a temporary replacement for Russian energy resources.
"Therefore, if Azerbaijan sees that the European Union stands behind Romania, it will not try to spoil relations with them in any way, this is not in the interests of Azerbaijan," the analyst concluded.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
