In recent years, incidents of petroleum products leaking into the environment from a pipeline are caused only by illegal connections to the crude oil and petroleum product pipelines. The Internal Safety Department of LatRosTrans cooperates successfully with the State Police in prevention of illegal connections. Thanks to intense investigation work, as well as various preventive measures, the number of thefts from the petroleum product pipeline has considerably decreased in recent years. For reference, The number of such thefts found was 177 in 2009, 111 in 2010, and only 41 in 2011.
Every time an illegal connection to a pipeline causes leakage of petroleum products to the environment, LatRosTrans undertakes liquidation of consequences for such accidents which cost the company about 200’000 LVL every year.
On February 15, 2012, in Ventspils, in cooperation with the Internal Safety Department of LatRosTrans Ltd., employees of the State Police detained eight persons during a theft-in-progress. These persons had installed a connection to the Polotsk-Ventspils petroleum product pipeline. Criminal proceedings have been initiated on by the police pursuant to Section 175 Paragraph 4 of the Criminal Law, which provides for punishment with deprivation of liberty for a period from 3 to 15 years, and confiscation of property and police supervision for a period of up to three years.
On June 17, 2012, in Kalkūni, which is 5 km from Daugavpils, an illegal connection to the diesel fuel pipeline of LatRosTrans (LRT) was found and liquidated. The thieves had obtained 30 tons of diesel fuel with the total value of about 15 thousand LVL. The equipment and technology used by the fuel thieves indicates that the connection was performed by an organized group of criminals.
