The hearing on the ownership of technological oil in the Polotsk-Ventspils pipeline has been postponed

May 16, Minsk / Anna Kot - BELTA /. The hearing on the ownership of technological oil located in the Polotsk - Ventspils main oil pipeline owned by LatRosTrans LLC on the territory of Latvia has been postponed. The date of the hearing will be announced later, BELTA was informed by Polotsktransneft Druzhba OJSC. The hearing on the merits was scheduled for May 16, but due to LatRosTrans LLC's appeal to the Latgale District Court (Latvia) against the decision of the Daugavpils Court of March 29, which rejected the company's application to lift the interim measures regarding the disputed technological oil, the court hearing had to be postponed until the case materials are returned to the Daugavpils Court. The interim measures imply the arrest of the disputed technological oil, as well as a ban on actions aimed at its draining and movement. The court hearing at the Latgale District Court took place on May 11. Based on the results of the case review, the court considers the complaint unfounded and therefore subject to rejection, Polotsktransneft Druzhba OJSC noted. "The date of the next hearing has not yet been set," the OJSC said, adding that it would most likely take place at the Daugavpils Court. The hearing will consider the case on its merits. It is worth recalling that two companies claim ownership of the technological oil located in the Polotsk - Ventspils main oil pipeline owned by LatRosTrans LLC on the territory of Latvia: LatRosTrans LLC and Polotsktransneft Druzhba OJSC. As reported earlier, on November 16, 2010, LatRosTrans LLC issued an official statement on its intention to begin displacing technological oil from its section of the Polotsk - Ventspils oil pipeline. The company claimed ownership of the technological oil and "legal rights" to its removal from the pipeline. Also on November 16, the LLC unilaterally terminated the lease agreement for premises with the representative office of NRUPTN "Druzhba" (currently Polotsktransneft Druzhba OJSC) in Latvia, thereby restricting its access to the Ventspils reception and dispatch point. On November 25, LatRosTrans LLC began draining the oil. Commenting on the actions of the Latvian-Russian company, Belneftekhim concern reported that it has documents confirming the ownership of the Belarusian enterprise of technological oil, signed, among others, by the Latvian side, and sees no legal grounds for challenging this right. In addition, the concern's specialists expressed the opinion that the displacement of oil from the pipeline by LatRosTrans LLC and its filling with a gas mixture would make it impossible to use the Polotsk - Ventspils oil pipeline section for oil pumping. After it became known about the start of pumping technological oil from the Polotsk - Ventspils oil pipeline, NRUPTN "Druzhba" began preparing documents to protect its rights in court. On December 3 last year, the Daugavpils Court accepted the claim of NRUPTN "Druzhba" against LatRosTrans LLC for the recognition of property rights and the prohibition of the use of movable property, and then imposed an arrest on the technological oil. Thus, LatRosTrans LLC was prohibited from taking actions aimed at draining and moving technological oil from the oil pipeline on the territory of Latvia. On March 29, the Daugavpils Court considered the application of LatRosTrans LLC to lift the interim measures regarding the disputed technological oil, which imply its arrest, as well as a ban on actions aimed at draining and moving, and decided to maintain these measures. Polotsktransneft Druzhba Open Joint Stock Company is the legal successor of Novopolotsk Republican Unitary Enterprise for Oil Transport (NRUPTN) "Druzhba", which was reorganized into Polotsktransneft Druzhba OJSC at the end of 2010. The main task of the joint-stock company is the transportation of Russian oil from the West Siberian region, Tatarstan and the Volga region to Belarus (Naftan OJSC). The oil pipelines operated by the organization also allow for transit transportation of oil to the Baltic countries. LatRosTrans LLC is the largest Latvian-Russian joint venture in the Baltic countries, in which Ventspils Nafta AS owns 66% and Transnefteprodukt AK OJSC owns 34% of the charter capital. The enterprise ensures the transportation of oil and petroleum products through main pipelines on the territory of Latvia. The length of LatRosTrans's main pipelines exceeds 700 km. -0-