Romanian authorities will look into Russia’s involvement in contamination of a large batch of Azerbaijani gas transported to the country via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, local G4 media outlet reported on Thursday.
G4 cited unnamed officials as saying that contamination with organic chloride of around 200,000 tons of oil sent to the oil refinery of Romania’s OMV Petrom company might have been part of Russia’s “hybrid war”. According to the source, the chloride found in shipped oil could not have entered the country other than from an external source. "The oil contamination could have been carried out through a relatively simple sabotage operation by Russia on a section of the oil pipeline more than 1,700 km long," the report said. The sabotage might be part of Kremlin’s efforts to undermine Romania’s support for Ukraine by sowing instability in the country.
The Azeri crude tainted with organic chloride threatened to corrode infrastructure at OMV Petrom company’s oil refinery, possibly triggering an energy crisis, G4 stressed. Romania’s Energy Ministry confirmed that the refinery did not receive 184,000 tons of oil, stressing that a state of emergency was declared in the energy sector. The ministry said that 80,000 tons of crude oil and 30,000 tons of diesel had to be requisitioned from emergency stocks due to emergency situation.
BTC Pipeline Company that operates the pipeline as well as OMV Petrom Company confirmed the fact of contamination of oil bound to Romania. This was not the first case of contamination of Azerbaijani oil sent to European markets. In July, Italy’s Eni company and Czechia’s Unipetrol company confirmed that chloride-tainted Azeri crude had reached their countries. There have not been any official reactions about transport of contaminated Azeri crude to Romania. It should be noted that Azerbaijan exports crude oil to ten European countries.
Sharing 614 kilometer border with Ukraine, NATO member Romania has been a key ally to Kyiv during Russia’s full-fledged invasion launched in February 2022.
