Oil negotiations failure deprived Belarus of $300 million

Belarus may fall $300 million short in oil products incomes until the end of the year.

An economist Anton Baltochka shared his view as he commented on the failure of oil negotiations for the charter97.org web-site.

“It is worth noting that Arkadiy Dvorkovich’s statement does not yet mean the decrease in oil shipments. There is also Mr Ihar Sechin in Russia, who is higher in the influence rating. Sechin is interested in the shipments not to decrease. At least the shipments for his plant. But if the shipments do get decreased, Belarus will lose a certain share of earnings from selling gasoline to Europe and other countries, which of course will affect the profitability of the refineries. This will also partly influence the amount of foreign currency obligatory to be sold by exporters to the National Bank”, - the expert noted.

According to the economist, Belarus could further worsen its balance of payments, which would reflect in Belarusian rouble’s exchange rate, making it weaker.

“One should consider that if the volume of oil shipments is lowered, the budget may be somewhat reconsidered. We can see that Belarusian authorities have increased export fees on oil products literally two days ago, which or course is supposed to provide additional budget incomes. That is why one may manipulate the numbers here. Nevertheless, one may say that Belarus may fall $300 million short in oil products export incomes until the end of the year”, - Anton Baltochka concluded.

We would remind that today at the meeting with the deputy chairman of Belarus’ government Uladzimir Siamashka Russia’s vice-Prime Minister Arkadiy Dvorkovich claimed that Belarus would only get 18.5 million tons of Russian oil in 2013.