Romania suspects Russia of sabotaging Azerbaijani oil supply
Romania considers Russia involved in oil incident (photo: Getty Images)
Romania suspects that Russia is involved in the contamination of a large batch of oil supplied by Azerbaijan. The Russians may have carried out sabotage on the pipeline, the Romanian news portal G4Media reports.
It is noted that Russia, as part of its hybrid war, may have contaminated a large batch of almost 200,000 tons of oil that arrived from Azerbaijan to the refinery of the Romanian company OMV Petrom.
According to the portal's sources, organic chlorides were found in the oil, which could not have entered it other than from an external source. The concentration of chlorine turned out to be so high that the Romanian refinery would have been seriously damaged if it had begun processing the contaminated oil.
"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 company immediately contacted the Romanian Ministry of Energy. Considering that the refinery did not receive 184,000 tons of oil, the ministry declared a state of emergency in the energy sector.
It is noted that this is not the first terrorist attack by Russia indirectly aimed against Azerbaijan. In particular, recently the Russian army attacked a gas transmission infrastructure facility near the border of Ukraine with Romania with dozens of drones. Through this station, gas from the United States and Azerbaijan was supplied to Ukraine.
Azerbaijani gas has been received by Naftogaz of Ukraine since mid-July. It is transported through the Trans-Balkan corridor. Supplies of gas from this new source could potentially strengthen the country’s energy security in the future.
"Arson" acknowledged
Russian forces may carry out terrorist attacks against Azerbaijan because the country's president, Ilham Aliyev, seriously "set fire" to the Russians in July.
On July 20, a Ukrainian journalist presented Aliyev with chevrons of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, after which he thanked her and said to continue acting further. This, in turn, provoked hysteria among the Russians.
And on July 19, during a press appearance, the President of Azerbaijan was asked what advice he would give Ukrainians as the leader of a nation that, after three decades, managed to restore its territorial integrity. In response, he said that one should never agree to occupation and never give up.
