MOSCOW, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Russia's biggest oil producerRosneft said for the first time that it will claimcompensation from pipeline monopoly Transneft for adrop in oil output due to the contamination in the Transneftnetwork earlier this year.
The contamination, first discovered in April in Belarus, ledto the stoppage of Russian oil exports via the 1 millionbarrels-per-day Druzhba pipeline and a reduction in oilproduction in Russia, one of the world's top producers of crude.
In a rare comment on the oil contamination issue, Rosneftsaid on Friday in its second-quarter results based on Russianaccounting standards that the company will include losses fromthe fall in oil output in an estimate of damages from thecontamination.
The company said it had been forced to reduce the output ofoil because the Transneft pipeline network was unable totransport it.
"A calculation of losses can be completed after a complexestimation of implications ... including forced reduction of oiloutput in that period due to reduction of intake of oil into theTransneft network ... reception of full and documented claimsfrom contractors and readdressing them to Transneft," Rosneftsaid.
At the end of July, Transneft set a cap of $15 per barrel oncompensation for contamination, drawing scepticism from transitcountry Belarus and criticism from some buyers that the offerwas too low.(Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova. Editing by Jane Merriman)