(Adds Russia, Slovakia, envoy quotes)
PRAGUE, July 11 (Reuters) - Russia has reduced crude oil
supplies to the Czech Republic via the Druzhba pipeline, Czech
officials said on Friday.
They said they were waiting for explanation of the move,
which Russia told local oil companies was due to technical
reasons, but that oil processing was not being affected for now.
Relations between the two countries have been hit by a Czech
agreement with the United States, signed on Tuesday, to build a
U.S. missile defence shield radar station in the central
European country, but there was no word the supply dip had
political undertones.
Vaclav Bartuska, a Czech government ambassador-at-large for
energy security, said the country took about 5.5 million tonnes
of crude from Russia per year or about 500,000 tonnes per month.
He said if the decline in supplies continued, July shipments
would drop by about 200,000 tonnes.
"They said they would cut supplies significantly, but at
this point the key for us is why this is happening," he said.
"However we know that they did not cut to Poland, Hungary,
and Slovakia. No technical impact there."
Industry Ministry spokesman Tomas Bartovsky said the country
was seeking an explanation through diplomatic channels and Czech
oil and government officials would meet on the matter on Monday.
He said supply drops had occurred during summer months in
the past as well.
A source in Russian mid-sized oil firm Tatneft <TATN3.MM>
said the drop was caused by relocating volumes.
"There was a deficit in raw materials in July, so some
volumes were moved to August," he said, estimating that the
decline in July shipments was 30,000-40,000 tonnes.
Tatneft would not officially comment on the issue.
The Czechs depend for most of their oil supplies on Russia,
but also have an alternative link to Ingolstadt in Germany.
"We believe it is a short term fluctuation," said Francois
Vleugels, chief executive of the country's main refiner
Unipetrol <>, adding that the Russian side told his
company the reasons were technical.
The country of 10.4 million people has oil products reserves
for over 90 days.
The Druzhba runs from Russia and its two branches supply
Belarus, Poland, Ukraine, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary and the
Czech Republic.
Slovakia said it noticed a drop in the flow but officials
would not say if that was in volumes destined for transit to the
Czech Republic or consumption in Slovakia.
(Reporting by Martin Dokoupil, Jana Mlcochova and Jan Lopatka
in Prague, additional reporting by Alexander Yershov in Moscow
and Peter Laca in Bratisalva)
