Official: Latvia may deliver oil to Belarus from its ports

MINSK, Jan 16 (PRIME) -- Latvia is ready to carry oil from its ports to Belarus, but it is subject to agreements between companies, Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krisjanis Karins told reporters on Thursday following a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

“We see that there are possibilities not only to transport oil products (from Belarus) abroad through the Latvian ports, but we could also transport oil from all around the world to Belarus through the Latvian ports. This is possible, and we discussed it,” he said.

“This is an issue for the companies. Speaking of the government, it is highly interested in exploring this opportunity. This is a practical issue, we should talk to the terminals and railway companies.”

He said that transport and logistics cooperation is the best options for improvement of Latvia’s relations with Belarus.

Oil negotiations of Russia and Belarus fell through in 2019, and on December 31, Lukashenko ordered the government to finish the talks and start looking for alternative ways of oil supplies. Russia stopped oil exports to the country on January 1, 2020 as the export contract expired.

On January 4, Deputy CEO of the state’s energy holding Belneftekhim Vladimir Sizov said that oil supplies contracts were finalized, and that Belarus hoped to receive 650,000 tonnes of oil from Russia in the month. A Russian oil industry source told PRIME then that Belarus had suggested that Russian independent oil suppliers should supply oil to the state during price negotiations.

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