Agreement on oil reached. But what are the terms?

Syamashka arranged to resume the previous volume of Russian oil supplies  in 2012.

The Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister told this to journalists  on November 2, BelTA news agency reports.

According to him, the talks with Russia on oil supplies were held normally. “We discussed all problems and agreed to resume the oil supplies volume of 5.3 million tonnes in the IV quarter in accordance with the annual oil supply balance,” Uladzimir Syamashka said. However terms of the agreement with Russia are unknown.

It should be reminded that supplies of Russian oil to Belarus in October were 1,347, 000 tonnes, which is 22% less than the volume of supply in September.

It was reported earlier that during the talks over the oil supply to Belarus in the IV quarter of 2012 and in 2013 Moscow suggested that Minsk compensate for the loss of the Russian budget caused by Belarusian “solvents” business, which is estimated at $1.5 billion. Russian and Belarusian experts doubt that Belarus will be able to pay $1.5 billion of compensation to the Russian budget. It is more likely that there will be talks of non-monetary solution to the issue.

At the end of the previous week the first round of the negotiations took place in Moscow with the participation of the First Deputy prime minister of Belarus Uladzimir Syamashka and Deputy Minister of Economy Anatol Filonau. The prospects of energy supplies to Belarus were discussed also on 19 October at the meeting of Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak in Minsk. The sides  in particular discussed the issues of oil supplies to Belarus in the IV quarter. Russia reduced  “black gold” supplies to our country by 1.3 million tonnes.

Russian  officials repeatedly expressed their concerns about exporting of petroleum products under the guise of “thinners” and “solvents” by Minsk to avoid paying export duties to Russia.