The flow of Russian oil through a Ukrainian pipeline to other parts of Europe was suspended after a storm knocked out the power supply to a pumping station in western Ukraine, a pipeline official said Friday.
Oleksandr Dikusarov, a spokesman for the Ukrtransnafta pipeline company, said the flow of oil was interrupted on a section of the Druzhba, or Friendship, pipeline running from the city of Brody in western Ukraine to the Ukrainian border with Slovakia and Hungary on Thursday night. The interruption prevented supplies from reaching both countries.
Dikusarov said that the pipeline was due to become fully operational again at noon, and that extra oil would be pumped to make up for the overnight losses.
Sergei Grigoriyev of Russia's Transneft pipeline monopoly confirmed that Russia was still pumping oil into the pipeline and had been told the damaged pumping station would be repaired Friday.
The shutdown comes after oil supplies were temporarily stopped on the Belarusian section of the Druzhba pipeline during a fight between Belarus and Russia over transit tariffs earlier this month.
The Druzhba pipeline has two branches, one of which runs to Poland and Germany, and the other to Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.