Belarusian Oil Refining Incurs Huge Losses

Payments for workers are frozen.

Belarusian oil refining suffered huge losses at the beginning of 2024. This conclusion can be drawn from the data published by Belstat on April 29 on the financial indicators of certain regions of Belarus for the first two months of 2024, Flagshtok reports.

The net loss of enterprises of the Mazyr district for January-February 2024 amounted to BYN 182.8 million. Last year, over the same period, it received a net profit of BYN 21.6 million. The share of unprofitable organizations of the district is only 14.3%, and therefore huge losses can almost certainly be associated with the largest grossing enterprise of the district – the Mazyr Refinery.

According to a source associated with the activities of the Mazyr Refinery, in the first months of 2024, the plant's activities brought losses. Payments under the collective agreement were suspended for the employees of the company since they were paid from the profit of the enterprise.

This is not an isolated case, but the general situation in Belarusian oil refining is evidenced by the financial statistics of Navapolatsk, where another Belarusian oil refiner Naftan is located. Here, the net loss was even more significant — BYN 324.5 million.

The problems of oil refining have a negative impact on the entire economy of the region. Compared to last year, the net profit of all organizations of the Homel region decreased by almost 2 times from 234.2 to 128.2 million BYN. Exports of goods decreased by 4.8% over the same period.

In 2023, the Mazyr Refinery was named among the three largest taxpayers in the Homel region. Since the second quarter of 2021, the company has ceased to publish financial information about its activities. In 2020, the Mazyr Metallurgical Plant was the most profitable enterprise among all joint-stock companies in the Homel region.