Belarus hopes to get 650,000 tns of Russian oil in January

MINSK, Jan 9 (PRIME) -- Belarus hopes to receive 650,000 tonnes of oil from Russia in January with a debut delivery of 100,000–130,000 tonnes, Deputy CEO of the state’s energy holding Belneftekhim Vladimir Sizov said on January 4.

“To ensure consistent performance of our oil refineries and supplies of oil products to the internal market, we have reached an agreement with…Russian oil companies on deliveries of around 100,000–130,000 tonnes of oil at the first stage,” he said.

Sizov also said that Belneftekhim held talks with both vertically integrated and small Russian oil producers on oil supplies to the country.

Belarus plans to resume exports of oil products until the end of January, Sizov said.

“Resumption of (oil products exports) is expected in January… We hope that until the end of January – it is an optimistic scenario – all possible restrictions will be lifted,” Sizov said and added that deliveries to the internal market are a top priority for the company.

He also said that deliveries of Russian oil to the Belarussian oil refinery Naftan resumed at 5 p.m. to pump 6,000 tonnes of oil on January 4, and that supplies to the Mozyr refinery will start soon.

The Belarussian government said that Prime Ministers Dmitry Medvedev and Sergei Rumas discussed the oil supplies issue in a phone conversation.

On January 1, Russia stopped oil supplies to the Belarusian refineries after the contract had expired. Belneftekhim said that the refineries started to use oil reserves and their loading decreased to the technological minimum. Minsk was forced to temporary cease oil exports.

Belneftekhim also said on January 4 that oil supplies contracts at a price excluding premiums to suppliers had been discussed, and that documents on first such deliveries were finalized. Igor Dyomin, adviser to the president of Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, told PRIME that the company had received a request on pumping 130,000 tonnes of oil to Naftan.

A source with the Russian oil industry told PRIME that Belarus had suggested that Russian independent oil suppliers should ship oil to the state at the time of oil price negotiations. The source also said that the failure to prolong the contract was linked with Belarus’ wish to reduce the price by a U.S. $10 per tonne premium to the market price.

On January 3, the Belarussian government said that the gas supply contract with Russian gas giant Gazprom was prolonged until 2021 with the price retained at $127 per 1,000 cubic meters for January–February, and the volume of gas deliveries and transit was retained at the level of 2019.

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