OREANDA-NEWS. June 9, 2012. Orlen Lietuva plans to renew negotiations with TRANSNEFT JSC on deliveries of oil to Mazheikyaisky oil processing plant. “On May, the 7th of this year, a note of Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs came from the Lithuanian embassy in Moscow, where it was said about intentions of Orlen Lietuva (Mazheikyai city) to renew negotiations with TRANSNEFT JSC regarding deliveries of oil by DRUZHBA pipeline, - as the Department of Information and Press of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed INTERFAX. “The copy of this document is forwarded to the above mentioned Russian Company for consideration of the question given”, the interlocutor of the agency told.

TRANSNEFT's representative informed INTERFAX that the pipeline on this direction needs its full replacement. "The pipe was stopped in the year 2006 because of its emergency conditions. Our testings with the help of intratubal diagnostics found 7,853 defects. After that, the pipeline had not been used for six years, and that didn’t help to lessen the quantity of defects, their quantity just had increased", he said. According to the Company’s information, this pipe has been exploited for 48 years, but the resource period is just 30 years. "The resource period can be prolonged up to 40 years, considering due maintenance and control", he clarified. "It only means that this ppe must be fully replaced", the Company's representative summarized.

According to him, the average cost of the pipe replacement is about 240 million USD. At that, he noted that the pipeline goes through the territory of Belorussia and the Baltic states. “These countries hardly have enough sources for investments”, the representative believes. “Besides, BPS-2 system was build, which substituted this northern pipe that went to the Baltic port”, he added.