Russia Identifies Source of Oil Contamination as Crisis Wanes
- Private company fed chlorides into pipe network: Transneft
- Russia, partners now studying technical solution for problem
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Russia identified the source of chemical contamination that shut down a major oil pipeline to Europe, blaming a private storage terminal in the center of the country for the problem.
"We can say for sure that the organic chlorides were fed into the pipeline through a control point run by privately-held Samaratransneft Terminal," Russia’s state-run crude pipeline operator Transneft PJSC said in a statement on Friday. The terminal accepts oil from a number of smaller independent producers and is obliged to check quality of the crude, it said.