Azerbaijan Refuses Supplying Oil to Belarus, Media Informs

Azerbaijan's state oil company intends to obey international sanctions.

Major Russian oil companies have not supplied oil to Novopolotsk-based Naftan since early May, according to statistics obtained by Interfax. Belarus did not buy even a tanker of Azerbaijani oil, reports tut.by.

During 16 days in May, the refinery in Novopolotsk received 54,800 tons of crude oil from Russia by "other subsoil users" (not considered as major subsoil users under the Russian official statistics). It is 20.7 thousand tons less per day compared to the previous month.

The main Naftan suppliers in April are Rosneft - 339 thousand tons, Surgutneftegas - 204 thousand tons, Tatneft - about 100 thousand tons, Bashneft - 32 thousand tons and RussNeft - less than 10 thousand tons.

Mozyr Refinery has received 300 thousand tons of oil from Russia (1.2 thousand tons per month less compared to April). The main consignors are Lukoil, Gazprom Neft and Rosneft, and the last two companies have increased the volume compared to last month.

It is noteworthy that in the first quarter of 2020, major Russian oil companies did not supply oil to Belarus due to price disagreements. Only Mikhail Gutseriyev's companies RussNeft and Neftisa shipped crude oil to refineries in Novopolotsk and Mozyr. Today, a representative of RussNeft said to tut.by that the company wouldn't comment on crude oil deliveries to Belarus.

Earlier Transneft announced the reduction of deliveries of Russian pipeline oil to Belarus in May down to 608 thousand tons which is 2.2 times less than in April. Unofficially, there were plans to ship only 50 thousand tons of Russian oil through the pipeline Druzhba to Naftan in May.

On April 27, Reuters reported the renewal of U.S. sanctions against Naftan made major Russian oil producers voice their concerns about further oil supplies. Since April 19 this year, the U.S. replaced the current 2G license to 2H. It means that counterparties of any nine sanctioned companies of Belneftekhim are advised to complete any transactions with them until June 3.

It's also noteworthy that deliveries of Azerbaijani oil to Belarus are not scheduled for this May. Deputy head of the Public Relations and Events Department of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) Ibrahim Ahmedov told Sputnik Azerbaijan that Minsk had not sent a corresponding request.

Ahmedov declined to comment on whether the decision was linked to the expansion of sanctions against some Belarusian state-owned enterprises. He stresses that the cooperation with Belarus continues. At the same time, the Azerbaijani company does not violate international sanctions.

Earlier, a tanker of Azerbaijani oil of 80-90 thousand tons was delivered from Ukraine to Mozyr Oil Refinery every month. Last year, the Belarusian authorities decided to start building a link to facilitate the exchange of raw materials between the two refineries. Rail deliveries of crude oil are quite costly.

By the way, SOCAR announced the signing of a contract on the right to export oil products from Rosneft to Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic States and other Eastern European countries. Since April 1, 2021, the Swiss trader Proton Energy Group stopped deliveries of Russian oil products to Ukraine amid pressure from Ukrainian security forces.