Belarus reduced oil import abruptly, indebtedness for gas increased

In January-April Belarus decreased import of Russian oil by 41% as compared to the analogous period of the last year.

The average price of the imported oil was $399 per ton, it increased by 57.2% as compared to January-April 2099, the Belarusian Statistics Ministry reports say. Oil imports have been decreaszed to 4187,9 thousand tons, informs AFN.

Summing up the results of the 4 months, import of oil products was 195,9 thousand tons, which is 85.4% less than for the analogous period of 2009. The average price was $596 per ton, which is 2.3 times as much as in January-April 2009.

Export of oil products in January-April 2010 was 3072.2 thousand tons, having decreased by 38.4%. At the same time, the average price for export has increased by 55.6% up to $570 per ton.

According to the results of January-April 2010, import of the natural gas has grown by 62.9% as compared to the analogous period of 2009 and was equal to 7907.0 ml cubic metres. The average price for gas was $174 per thousand cubic metres, having decreased by 12.1% as compared to in January-April 2009.

At the same time, the external past-due indebtedness for the natural gas as of May 1 reached Br392.8 billion as compared to Br270.6 billion as of April 1 and Br144.1 as of March 1. We remind that on February 1 and in the beginning of the year there was no past-due indebtedness to Gazprom.