Belarus, Russia to negotiate next year’s oil deliveries soon

In the near future Belarus and Russia will hold negotiations on next year’s oil deliveries, BelTA learned from Igor Bobyr, Deputy Chairman of the Belarusian state petrochemical concern Belneftekhim, at the press conference held on 27 May. The press conference was timed to Chemical Industry Worker’s Day.

“In line with the agreement with the Russian side the work on oil deliveries in 2016 and later on will begin virtually one of these days. Everything will be okay. We will come to terms,” said the official.

Asked whether Belarusian Oil Company ships oil products to Russia now, Igor Bobyr said that deliveries had been suspended. “We don’t ship oil products for now. We do when it is profitable for Belarusian enterprises,” he said. Yet the official assured that the shipment of Russian oil to Belarus had not been reduced.

BelTA earlier quoted Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko as saying that the final volume of the shipment of oil products to Russia this year will be determined by the market. In accordance with the signed balance of shipments in 2015 Russia will supply 23 million tonnes of oil to Belarus. Respectively Belarus is supposed to ship 3.1 million tonnes of oil products to Russia. “When the Eurasian Economic Union was being established, we specified that if the price for diesel fuel and gasoline delivered to the Russian Federation is lower than the prices in other markets, Belarus will not make deliveries at a loss,” stressed the Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus.

Mass media reported recently that the energy ministries of Belarus and Russia are busy developing methods to determine the difference in prices for fuel on Russia’s domestic market and on foreign markets in order to allow mutual corrections of the deliveries of oil and oil products. In particular, the effective agreement stipulates that if fuel prices in an export market and the Russian market differ considerably, Belarus can suspend the delivery of oil products. “But this proviso is too abstract. It is unclear what the considerable difference is. There are no methods. Now the Energy Ministry and colleagues are busy developing them,” mass media quoted Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying.