Official: Tatneft can send 80,000 tonnes of oil to Belarus Feb

MOSCOW, Feb 5 (PRIME) -- Russian oil producer Tatneft has submitted a preliminary bid to supply 80,000 tonnes of oil to Belarus, oil pipeline monopoly Transneft CEO Nikolai Tokarev told reporters on Wednesday.

“There are only requests from Safmar and Tatneft for 80,000 tonnes in February, but this is just a preliminary application. It is not certain that Tatneft will send 80,000 tonnes there. I think a meeting (between the presidents of Russia and Belarus) will be announced soon and there will be some clarity. The situation is discouraging, frankly speaking, it creates problems for both us and Belarus,” Tokarev said.

Tokarev said that Safmar can ship 250,000 tonnes of oil to Belarus in February.

The official separately said that it is technically difficult to make the Druzhba pipeline crossing Belarus carry reverse supplies. “It is impossible to do that even theoretically because too many sides are involved in this technological process,” he said. “Secondly, in order to do this technologically, different pumps need to be installed.”

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko has many times said that the country is looking for alternative oil supplies, including reverse supplies of American or Saudi oil through Poland via Druzhba, in the absence of an all-encompassing deal with Russia.

Belarus is also discussing oil supplies from Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic states, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan. Minsk has bought 86,000 of Norwegian oil to be delivered through the port of Klaipeda and further via rail to a refinery in Novopolotsk.

End