Romanian media reports Russia may have intentionally contaminated transiting Azerbaijani oil
Romania is reportedly investigating if Russia may have been behind the contamination of a batch of Azerbaijani oil en route from Turkey, the Romanian media outlet G4 has reported, citing unnamed official sources.
Earlier in August, the Romanian Energy Ministry reported that a shipment of Azerbaijani crude oil from the Turkish port of Cehyan was contaminated with organic chlorides and rendered unusable.
G4 reported that the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan Pipeline Company (BTC), which operates the main source of Azerbaijani fossil fuels flowing to the EU, also said the contaminant had been found in ‘several storage tanks’.
As a result, the ministry said that 80,000 tons of crude oil and 30,000 tons of diesel had to be requisitioned from emergency stocks.
The Azerbaijani oil was set to be received at the Petrobazi refinery, owned by the Romanian oil company OMV Petrom.
G4 reported on 7 August that official sources said Bucharest was ‘considering’ if Russia had intentionally introduced the contaminant as part of a ‘hybrid warfare operation’.
The level of chloride present in the crude oil was ‘high enough to seriously damage the refinery through corrosion’, the outlet wrote.
Some contaminated Azerbaijani oil had already reached Italy in late July, with Austria detecting some as well.
Official sources told G4 that introducing chloride could have been a ‘relatively simple Russian sabotage operation’, involving the injection of ‘several tankers of chlorine’ somewhere along the 1,700 kilometre pipeline.
While acknowledging the contamination, Bucharest has yet to confirm that it is looking into the possibility of Russian foul play.
Nonetheless, Russian-linked sabotage attacks on infrastructure in the EU have become increasingly commonplace since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning
