- Oil prices rose by over 1% Tuesday after Russia suspended flows through a key pipeline section.
- Russia will suspend flows via the southern leg of its Druzhba pipeline, a spokesperson said.
- The pipeline supplies Europe with around 1 million barrels of crude a day, according to S&P Global.
Russia has suspended oil exports via the southern leg of its Druzhba pipeline – a move that could potentially exacerbate Europe's ongoing energy crisis.
The country's crude pipeline operator Transneft said that it had been unable to pay its Ukrainian equivalent due to western sanctions, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
Russia will suspend oil export flows through the pipeline's southern leg as a result, choking off crude supply to the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia.
Druzhba is a 2,500-mile pipeline that supplies Europe with 1 million barrels of oil a day, according to S&P Global. Its southern leg carries crude from western Siberia, the Ural mountains, and the Caspian Sea into central and eastern Europe via Ukraine.
Crude oil prices rallied slightly after Russia suspended flows, with Brent crude climbing 1.36% to just under $98 a barrel and WTI crude jumping 1.22% to just below $92 a barrel.
Both benchmarks soared to just under $140 a barrel after Russia invaded Ukraine in February but have slipped back towards their pre-war levels in recent months as recessionary fears reduce demand for commodities.
Druzhba's northern leg will export oil as normal, a Transneft spokesman said. That part of the pipeline ships oil through Belarus to refineries in Poland and Germany.
This isn't the first time that western sanctions against Vladimir Putin's regime have curbed energy flows into Europe. Russia slashed flows of natural gas through the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to just 20% of capacity last month as it says it is waiting for the return of a repaired turbine from Canada.