LatRosTrans urged to pay damages to Polotsktransneft Druzhba

MINSK, 16 September (BelTA) – OAO Polotsktransneft Druzhba would like the Lithuanian court to recognize the company’s ownership of 110,000 tonnes of process oil in the oil pipeline Polotsk-Ventspils and to force OOO LatRosTrans to pay the damages caused by illegal drain of over 40,000 tonnes of oil, representatives of the Belarusian company told BelTA. Thus, Polotsktransneft Druzhba has changed the matter in the dispute between the Belarusian company and the Latvian-Russian one. Earlier the two companies were in dispute over the ownership of the process oil inside LatRosTrans’ oil pipeline Polotsk-Ventspils in Latvian territory. The dispute has been in Latvian courts since December 2010. Court sessions have been delayed several times due to cross complaints of the Latvian-Russian company among other things. Following the change of the matter in the dispute the Daugavpils court, which was supposed to deliver the substantive judgment, has decided to hand over the case to the Latgalian district court. The Latvian side has ten days to appeal the decision. This is why the court hearing has not been scheduled yet. If there are no complaints from LatRosTrans, the hearing may take place 2-3 months later. On 16 November 2010 LatRosTrans released an official statement about its plans to start draining the process oil from the Polotsk-Ventspils pipeline. The company claimed the ownership of the oil and legal rights to remove it from the pipeline. The same day LatRosTrans unilaterally rescinded the lease agreement of the office the company Druzhba (Polotsktransneft Druzhba at present) rented in Latvia and blocked the access to the Ventspils crude oil delivery and acceptance point. LatRosTrans started draining oil on 25 November. Evaluating actions of the Belarusian-Latvian company LatRosTrans, representatives of the Belarusian state petrochemical concern Belneftekhim said that the concern had documents to prove the Belarusian company’s ownership of the process oil. The documents have been signed, among others, by the Latvian side. The concern does not see any legal grounds to disclaim this right. Apart from that, specialists of the concern believe that LatRosTrans’ plans to replace the oil with a gas mixture will make pumping oil via the Polotsk-Ventspils pipeline impossible. After LatRosTrans started draining the process oil, the company Druzhba began collecting papers to protect its rights in court. Druzhba company filed the suit with the Daugavpils court on 3 December 2010 and the court arrested the process oil. LatRosTrans was forbidden to drain or move the process oil. On 29 March the Daugavpils court turned down LatRosTrans’ appeal to lift injunctive measures from the process oil and decided to leave the measures in place. Polotsktransneft Druzhba is the legal successor of the Novopolotsk-based oil transportation company Druzhba. Druzhba was converted into Polotsktransneft Druzhba in late 2010. The company specializes in transporting Russian oil from West Siberia, Tatarstan and the Volga region to Belarus (Naftan Oil Refinery). The pipelines the company operates also allow transit oil transportation to the Baltic states. The LatRosTrans company is a Latvian-Russian joint venture, in which Ventspils Nafta holds 66% of the shares and AK Transnefteprodukt owns 34% of the authorized fund. The company operates oil mains in Latvia. The oil mains are over 700 km long.

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