All EU States Now Receiving Russian Oil

"At this stage I can confirm that all the oil supplies are renewed, all [EU] member states that have been affected are receiving oil," Piebalgs said. "We also, in the Oil Supply Group, get information from representatives of Russia and Belarus that the issues related to the disruption will be solved at least in the next couple of days."

The oil stoppage had renewed EU concerns about its energy security and Piebalgs today called on both Russia and Belarus to be "really reliable."

Russia restarted the oil flow along the Druzhba pipeline across Belarus after Belarus scrapped an oil-transit duty it imposed last week and agreed to return oil Russia said it had taken illegally.

Belarus had imposed the transit duty after Russia doubled prices of natural-gas supplies and imposed duties on its oil exports to Belarus.

(Reuters)