Poland repairs oil pipeline leak, says pumping will resume

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - The Polish operator of an oil pipeline said Thursday that it was repairing damage that caused a leak earlier this week to the main source of crude oil from Russia to Germany.

PERN, the operator, also said it wants to resume the pumping of crude oil as soon as possible through the pipeline.

PERN detected a leak in the Druzhba pipeline on Tuesday evening 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the central Polish city of Plock.

The Druzhba pipeline, which in Russian means 'œFriendship,'ť is one of the world's longest oil pipelines. After leaving Russia, it branches out to bring crude to points including Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Austria and Germany.

In an statement late Wednesday, the Polish operator said there were 'œno signs of any third-party interference'ť related to a leak in the pipeline.

'œBased on first findings and the manner in which the pipeline was deformed, it appears that at this point there are no signs of any third-party interference,'ť PERN said. 'œHowever, more detailed analyses are underway to determine the cause of the incident and to repair the pipeline so that crude oil pumping can be restarted as soon as possible.'ť

The incident follows attacks late last month in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines running along the Baltic seabed, and as Europe seeks to reduce its reliance on Russian energy after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Denmark and Sweden say those natural gas pipelines were attacked with large amounts of explosives