Vice-president of the largest Russian oil exporter "Rosneft" Peter O'Brien said he expected no global crisis in oil supplies from Russia to Belarus. According to the company representative, exporters believe that duty-free oil supplies to Belarus could be resumed after the meeting of Prime Ministers of Belarus and Russia on January 20.
Prime Ministers of both countries, Mikhail Miasnikovich and Vladimir Putin, will discuss the conditions of Russian oil deliveries to Belarus in 2011 during a meeting in Moscow on Thursday, January 20, of which the parties failed to agree earlier. Prime Ministers are to discuss pricing policy and volumes of customer-owned processing, Reuters.
As Telegraf previously reported, the cessation of Russian oil supplies to Belarus caused Minsk’s cessation of diesel fuel supplies to Europe, although the delivery of Russian oil to European consumers via «Druzhba» pipeline is carried out without restrictions.
Russian oil companies insist on raising the price of oil supplies to Belarus by $ 45 per ton. Russia explains it by the world oil price growth, as well as by Belarus’ 12.5% increase of «black gold» transit tariff since February 1. Russia was to have supplied Belarus with 1.5 million tons of oil in January, but there have been no deliveries from January 1.
Meanwhile, Belarus applied to the CIS Economic Court against the Russian government’s violations of the international treaties provisions on free trade and Customs Union within the Eurasian Economic Community. The Belarusian side considers it violation to introduce export duties on oil products, exported from Russia to Belarus. January 19, Board of the CIS Economic Court postponed the hearing for three months, thus giving the parties additional time for conciliation.
