The Russian government and European oil refineries have reported only sparsely and misleadingly about a big pipeline disaster that has sent customers scrambling for alternative supplies and led to refinery outages. Russia is Germany’s largest oil supplier. The most important route for transporting Russian oil to Europe’s largest economy is the Druzhba (“Friendship”) pipeline, which was built in the 1960s and transits through several central and eastern European countries, including Belarus and Poland. For the past six weeks, oil flows through the pipeline have been halted as excessive levels of organic chloride were detected in crude pumped through the pipeline. The reasons for oil contamination are still not clear. The pipeline is operated by Russia’s state-owned company Transneft, which operates 68,000 kilometers (42,253 miles) of trunk pipeline and is controlled by the state. Read more: Druzhba pipeline: The dark side […]