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Transneft to replace Druzhba-1 oil pipeline if needed - dep. CEO

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MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russian state-owned pipeline operator Transneft is ready to replace the entire Druzhba-1 oil pipeline if necessary, the deputy chief executive said Monday.

On July 29, an accident on the Druzhba (Friendship) oil pipeline, which runs from Russia to central Europe, caused a spillage of 48 cubic meters of oil over an area of 340 meters in the western Bryansk Region. Crude supplies to Lithuanian refinery Mazeikiu were disrupted and have not been fully resumed.

"Nothing specific depends on Transneft at this moment," Sergei Grigoryev told Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio. "We are waiting for a decision from an independent study, which we will implement whatever it is."

The section that suffered the accident is part of the world's largest pipeline. Built in the Soviet era, it pumps Siberian oil from Samara in southeastern Russia about 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) into former communist-bloc countries, such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, as well as Lithuania.

However, the July accident appears to have prompted operator Transneft to consider replacing the 42-year-old pipeline, which Grigoryev suggested meant exactly that rather than closing it, as some in Lithuania have feared.

"If it is necessary to fully replace it, we will do so. But it is important to note that we are talking about replacing and not just dismantling it," he said.

The Mazeikiu refinery, which was recently bought by Poland's PKN, is largely dependent on the pipeline.

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