Ukraine further delays resumption of Druzhba oil deliveries, Slovakia says

Feb 24 (Reuters) - Ukraine has told Slovakia's oil pipeline system operator Transpetrol that the resumption of oil deliveries via the Druzhba pipeline has been delayed by another day to February 26, Slovakia's country's economy ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry, which had expected flows to restart on February 25, said it was not given a reason for the latest delay.

Slovakia announced the Druzhba pipeline outage on February 13, long after shipments of Russian oil via Slovakia and Hungary were cut off last month when Kyiv said a Russian drone strike hit pipeline equipment in western Ukraine.

Slovakia initially expected flows to resume shortly after its public announcement. Together with Hungary, it has blamed Ukraine for the prolonged outage.

On Monday, Prime Minister Robert Fico said Slovakia's power grid operator would refuse Ukrainian requests for emergency electricity supplies until oil flows resume via the Druzhba pipeline.

Ukraine has proposed alternative transit routes to ship oil to Europe while pipeline repair work takes place.

It has said threats to electricity supplies are blackmail, but that Slovakia stopping emergency supplies would not impact its power system.