No. 4, 2009
Olga Aleksandrova
THE DRUZHBA OIL TRUNK LINE
45 years ago, the world’s biggest trans-European system of oil trunk pipelines, the Druzhba, was started up
One of the key stages in the development of the Russian oil and gas complex was the successful construction and start-up of the Druzhba trans-European system of oil trunk pipelines, stretching over 6 thousand kilometres. This was the first and only export oil pipeline built in the USSR, connecting the oilfields of the Volga-Urals region and the countries of Eastern Europe: Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the GDR.
At the time, it was unequalled in the world.
A Christmas present for Eastern Europe
At the end of the 1940s, the contradictions between the Anti-Hitler Coalition Allies started to increase. The well-known speech made by British politician Winston Churchill (1874-1965) on March 5, 1946 in Fulton (USA) initiated the difficult period in world politics that the mass media graphically dubbed the "Cold War".
In January 1949, the USSR and a number of its allies in Easter Europe decided to set up the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), which was called on to promote, through co-ordination and unification, their efforts in international division of labor for consolidating the economic potential of the socialist community.
Comecon commissions set up in all spheres made decisions and recommendations on various economic, scientific and technical matters, but these decisions were not legally binding and were taken only with the consent of interested member countries. They did not apply to countries that declared a lack of interest in the given issue. Through Comecon, clearing (barter) trade was also organized between the member countries and their national economic plans were coordinated and interlinked.
Right from Comecon's inception, questions of energy cooperation were at the centre of attention, since the countries of Eastern Europe, apart from Romania, had an extremely high fuel and energy resource requirement.
At the 10th Comecon session in December 1958, it was decided to build, by the joint efforts of the countries, trunk oil pipelines for transporting Soviet oil to Eastern Europe. And in December of the following year, the heads of the USSR, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the GDR signed an intergovernmental agreement on construction of the Druzhba trunk oil pipeline with several branch pipelines.
Design attainments of Giprotruboprovod
The design of such an extended pipeline system, unique in the world, required full input of the specialists from the Moscow institute Giprotruboprovod, which was appointed the chief designer. This institution began its life in September 1939, when the State Union Trust Nefteprovodproekt was set up as the country's head organization for designing trunk pipelines and petroleum tank farms.
The friendly and well-organized work of the team of designers was carried out under the guidance of the Chief Engineer of the project Ivan Moskalkov (1904-1998). The general plan, considered and approved by each of the countries participating in the project, was the main guiding document on which the detailed design of the pipeline was based. Route research and design was provided by each individual country for its own sector.
According to the General Plan, the pipeline was to run from Almetevsk (Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) through Samara and Bryansk to Mozyr (Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic) and was then to split into two branches: the northern branch (through Belarus, Poland, Germany, Latvia and Lithuania) and the southern branch (through Ukraine, Czechoslovakia and Hungary), the total length of the pipeline system, with all its branches, being over 5 thousand kilometres.
The Russian sector was to be 3,900 kilometres long, including 46 pumping stations, 38 interim pumping stations, and reservoir parks with a capacity of 1.5 million m3 of oil.
The design for the Druzhba pipeline system included, for the first time in Russian pipeline construction, centrifugal mainline pumps with an output of 7000 m3 an hour and, at the head stations at the beginning of the operating sectors - prefabricated ferro-concrete, sunken oil storage tanks with a unit capacity of up to 30 thousand m3.
The work of the designers on creating an automation and telemechanics system was truly pioneering. Its successful implementation determined the course of work in this sphere for many years to come. Even then, use of software management and normal operation without the presence of servicing personnel were envisaged for the pumping stations.
Thanks to close working contacts between the Soviet designers and their foreign colleagues, unified design solutions were achieved for the linear part of the pipeline system and pumping stations.
The successful and fruitful work carried out by the team of the Giprotruboprovod institute in designing the Druzhba trans-European trunk pipeline system was highly appraised by the Soviet Government and, in October 1967, was awarded the order of the Labor Red Banner.
Overcoming barriers and impediments
Construction of the gigantic pipeline was launched on December 10, 1960 in the Kuybyshev Region, where the foundations were laid for the Lopatino pumping station.
It should be noted that each participating country was to provide the materials, machinery and equipment needed for construction of the pipeline. And the successful start to implementing the project should have set a rapid construction pace. Soon, however, the first serious impediment arose. Different sectors of the pipeline system were designed for estimated loading for pipes of different diameters: 1020, 820, 720, 630, 529 and 426 mm. The total project requirement for pipes was determined at 730 thousand tons.
The design for the first section of the pipeline, stretching 1,275 kilometres from Lopatino to Unecha, envisaged laying a 1020 mm. diameter pipe. Since Soviet plants did not produce pipes of this diameter, the USSR concluded an agreement with the FRG for sale and supply of large-diameter pipes but, at the beginning of construction, for political reasons, the German side violated its obligations and failed to deliver this essential product. In order not to cause construction delays, production of large-diameter pipes was rapidly introduced in Russia, at the Chelyabinsk and Novomoskovsk metal works. The pipes were delivered straight from the plant to the construction site and immediately placed in the trench.
It should be stressed at this point that the course of the work on building the pipeline system was controlled personally by the head of the Soviet Government and the Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971).
The enormously long pipeline route crossed mountains and the navigable Volga, Dnepr, Danube and Tissa Rivers, hundreds of small rivers, thousands of motor roads and railways. For this reason, the technological specifics of the pipeline and the resulting design developments constantly required new scientific and technical problems to be resolved as they arose during the construction process. For instance, during the construction work, semi-automatic pipe welding was used, as well as new types of electrode, internal line-up clamp, and many other technical innovations.
Celebration under a cloud
On the whole, construction of the entire Druzhba pipeline system took four years of intensive work, although individual sections began functioning earlier. For instance, the first tons of oil entered the Budkovce reservoirs in Czechoslovakia as early as February 1962. At the end of August of the same year, Hungary received Soviet oil. During 1963, the builders completed the Mozyr-Brody and Mozyr-Brest sections, making it possible to start supply of oil to Poland and the GDR.
By the middle of 1964, the main facilities of the "Druzhba -1" system were in operation and, on October 15, 1964, an official ceremony was scheduled to celebrate the start-up of the world's biggest trunk oil pipeline system - the "Druzhba." Preparations for this event were made well in advance. It was Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and the person who had been in overall charge of the project, who was to press the symbolical button. Party leaders and Heads of Government from Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the GDR were also to participate in the event.
In the end, however, the ceremonial start-up was a modest event, without any excessive celebrations, since, the day before the appointed date, October 14, 1964, Nikita Khrushchev was removed by decision of the Plenum of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from all state and party positions and sent into retirement.
Yet even without him, Soviet oil flowed in an abundant and uninterrupted stream along the pipeline system. The oilfields of the Volga-Urals region of the USSR began working to strengthen the economies of the East European countries.
Druzhba reaches new heights
The start-up of the Druzhba oil pipeline system and the constantly increasing supplies of Soviet oil helped satisfy the requirements of the East European socialist countries for energy resources and create a major petrochemical industry in Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, and the GDR.
In 1965, for example, the Comecon countries received 7.5% of all the Soviet oil produced (18.33 million tons of the 242.9 million tons produced in the USSR).
Five years later, at the regular session of the Comecon countries the question of increasing oil exports from the Soviet Union was put on the agenda and the Soviet leadership agreed. The Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution on expanding the throughput capacity of the Druzhba trunk oil pipeline system using the existing corridor.
Giprotruboprovod was again appointed to assume the obligations of the head design organization, and the work was completed in a short time.
In the spring of 1969, stage-by-stage work was launched on the sectors by laying loopings and connecting them to the existing pipelines, especially on the Brody-Uzhgorod, Mozyr-Brody, and Kuibyshev-Unecha sections, thus limiting the oil pumping productivity. In Czechoslovakia, a second pipeline was laid from the Soviet border to Sahy. In turn, in Hungary, on the Sahy-Szazhalombatta section, a powerful new pumping station was built. In the GDR, new branches were laid during this period from Schwedt to Leuna (350 kilometres) and Schwedt to Rostock (250 kilometres). In 1970, construction of a second line of the pipeline began in Poland.
One specific feature of the "Druzhba -2" project was a general increase in the diameter of the pipes laid to 1020 and 1220 mm, the purpose being to step up substantially the throughput capacity of the pipeline system.
In 1974, the Druzhba oil pipeline system was already operating at full capacity and the oil export possibilities of the USSR more than doubled.
Already 35 years have passed since that time but the Druzhba trunk pipeline system has not lost its significance and remains an important link in ensuring European energy security.
