Dictator’s Oil Revenues Fell By 40%

The export of Belarusian oil products in terms of money fell by almost 40% in 2016.

In 2016, the export of Belarusian petroleum products decreased in physical and value terms by 23% and amounted to 13 million tons, BelaPAN reports.

In value terms, the exports of petroleum products in 2016 amounted to $ 4 billion, and decreased (due to lower world oil prices) by about 40% compared to the same period of the previous year.

It should be noted that the exports of Belarusian oil products underwent significant changes in 2016. For example, if Belarus exported 3.2 million tons of oil products to Ukraine in 2015, it exported by one third more in 2016 – 4.3 million tons. Last year the supply of petroleum products to the Netherlands increased by a third, and almost in three times – to Poland.

At the same time Belarus exported 300 thousand tons of oil to Russia and reduced supply to the eastern market by 70% compared to 2015.

The Belarusian authorities explained the last year’s reduction of oil supplies to the Russian market by its unfavorable price conditions.

In turn, the Russian authorities, referring to the previously signed agreements with Belarus, were insisting on supplying the Russian market with 1 million tons of gasoline.

Due to the fact that Moscow and Minsk failed to find a compromise on this issue, as well as due to the gas dispute, the Russian government decided to reduce drastically oil supplies to Belarus.

In 2016, according to the original agreement, Russia was supposed to supply 24 million tons of oil to Belarus. In the first half of the year, the country received about 5.5 million tons of oil every quarter. However, from the second half of the year, the deliveries were reduced – at first, down to 3.5 million tons in a quarter, and down to 3 million tons in the fourth quarter.

Negotiations between Moscow and Minsk on the oil and gas dispute lasted for almost the whole 2016, but didn’t deliver concrete results.

It should be noted that the reduction in Russian oil supplies to Belarus has already led to noticeable decrease in hydrocarbon processing at Belarusian refineries. Thus, in 2016, the Mozyr refinery processed about 10 million tons of oil, which was 20% less when compared with the level of 2015.