Azerbaijani crude oil contaminated. Romania declares state of emergency
In July, two tankers carrying Azerbaijani oil loaded at the Ceyhan oil terminal in Turkey arrived at the Romanian port of Constanta .
Each vessel was carrying 92,000 tons of crude oil from Azerbaijan. Chemical tests revealed that the crude oil was contaminated with organic chlorides.
The Romanian government has released strategic oil reserves.The decision was made to refuse unloading of the ships and return them to their home ports. This meant suspending crude oil deliveries via the Constanța pipeline to Romania's largest refinery, Petrobrazi, located near Ploesti and owned by OMV Petrom.
OMV Petrom, faced with the possibility of its refinery being suspended due to a lack of raw material, has requested the government's temporary consent to release 80,000 tonnes of crude oil and 30,000 tonnes of diesel fuel from strategic stocks to ensure continuity of supply.
Problems with access to the raw material have led to the declaration of a state of emergency, which allows for the release of part of the state's reserves. This is only permitted in the event of a state of emergency at the crisis level, after prior notification to the European Commission, the Romanian Ministry of Energy announced in a press release.
The oil supplier BP-Azerbaijan was involved in clarifying the matter and informed that it had ordered quality tests to be carried out at the measuring stations of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BIC) oil pipeline.
No traces of contamination were found. The next step was to inspect the tanks at the port of Ceyhan, which revealed the presence of chlorides in some of them.
In Poland there was also a case of oil contamination with chloride compounds.The Romanian oil company will seek compensation for delivering crude oil that did not meet quality standards.
It is worth adding that in 2019, a similar situation occurred with Russian crude oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline . At that time, the presence of organic chlorides was also detected, which resulted in the cut-off of supplies to refineries in Gdańsk and Płock.
Journalist, graduate of political science at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University. Associated with the media for over 40 years. After graduating in 1982, he worked on the editorial staff of "Gazeta Krakowska" and "Kurier Polski." A member of the editorial team of "Przegląd Techniczny." He has published articles in "Student," "Przekrój," and "Życie Literackie." Since the economic and political transformation, he has been associated with Reuters as a correspondent in Krakow for over 20 years. For the next three years, he conducted practical classes with students at the Institute of Journalism, Media, and Social Communication of the Jagiellonian University. Since December 2021, he has joined the PTWP Group and works for the WNP.PL portal. His main professional interests include economics and politics at the global level and the participation of Polish business in this field, particularly companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Winner of the "Ostra Pióra" award, granted for "spreading economic education" by the BCC, as well as the Golden Pear - a journalistic award of the Małopolska Branch of the Association of Journalists of the Republic of Poland.
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