Reuters: Russia halts oil flow to Belarus

Russia has halted supplies to Belarusian refineries after negotiations on oil export to Belarus, Reuters reports.

In response Belarus threats to withdraw from the Customs Union. According to Reuters, oil flow to Poland and Germany via Belarus continues. According to representatives of two Russian oil traders, supplies were halted on January 1, but Navapolatsk and Mozyr refineries had enough stockpiled crude to continue operations for around a week.

A control operator at Homeltransneft neither confirmed nor denied Radio Svaboda information about cutting supplies of Russian oil to Belarusian refineries by saying he wasn’t authorized to make such statements. The company leadership is unavailable. An officer on duty at Belneftekhim concern noted she couldn’t say anything on the issue. Alyaksandr Tsimashenka, the spokesman for the Belarusian government, doesn’t have information on the matter.

Reuters informs Belarus threatened to raise transit fee on Russian oil supplies to Europe to $45 per tonne in retaliation against Russian demands of paying 100% of custom duties.

As a representative of the Belarusian government told Interfax, in these conditions Belarus doesn’t see any sense in participation in the Customs Union, which was launched on January 1.

“Oil trading beyond the scope of the Customs Union is a very dangerous precedent. This can cause a desire to apply the same rules to gas, energy and other goods. Russia’s new approaches to oil trading with Russia undermine the adjusted construction of the Customs Union. In this case Belarus doesn’t see prospects for the country,” an anonymous Belarusian official said.

As the website charter97.org has reported earlier, Belarus and Russia failed to agree on oil trade for the year 2010 at negotiations in Moscow last Thursday.

As Russian vice premier Igor Sechin said earlier, if an agreement on temporary supplies of Russian oil to Belarus for 2010 was not signed, Belarus would have to pay 100% of customs duties from January 1, 2010.

Sechin said Russia offered Belarus duty-free supplies taking into account “fraternal relations” between the two countries. The volume is estimated at 5–6 million tonnes per year. Russia plans to supply duty-free oil only for domestic needs of Belarus, the rest volume will attract customs fees.

According to the vice premier, around 21 million tonnes of oil was exported to Belarus via pipelines, 4–5 million tonnes was exported by rail and road.

Russian oil suppliers guarantee fulfilment of their liabilities on supplies in terms with the acting contract for Belarusian and European consumers, the Russian government says.

The press service of the Russian government says the Russian party did its best to sign an intergovernmental agreement on Russian oil supplies to Belarus before the New Year’s Eve in terms with arrangements reached at a session of the Russian–Belarusian State Council in Moscow.

In this respect, Belarus was informed on Russia’s intention to collect 100% of customs fees for delivered oil on January 1.