Venezuelan Minister of Energy and Petroleum Rafael Ramirez said that Caracas would increase oil supplies to Belarus to 200 thousand barrels per day in 2011. According to him, it is stipulated in the agreement, concluded by the governments of Belarus and Venezuela. Thus, the oil supply to Minsk "Petroleos de Venezuela" company will increase by 150%compared with 2010.
Currently, Venezuela is implementing a strategy of oil supply diversification to avoid dependence on the sale of «black gold» in the U.S., being its main customers today, Reuters. For this purpose Caracas goes to various overseas markets, mainly Chinese and Eurasian ones.
However, Rafael Ramirez says that «we do not sell oil at a discount to anybody… We are shipping oil to Belarus at market prices, above the WTI (West Texas Intermediate) value. We have had a price of USD 78 per barrel since April, USD 0.60 above the WTI … The accumulated bill is USD 871 million,» Ramírez said with regard to the deal with Belarus.
As Telegraf previously reported, under the contract terms Venezuela is to supply 4 million tons of oil to Belarus in 2010, the supply volume should increase to 10 million tons in 2011.
