Belarus resumes oil deliveries from Russia
Deliveries of oil from Russia to Belarus’s Naftan oil refinery in the Vitebsk Region resumed on the evening of January 4, said Vladimir Sizov, deputy head of the Belarusian state oil concern Belneftekhim, as cited by BelTA.
According to him, the pumping units were switched on at 17:05. “Oil deliveries towards Naftan have begun. As routing instructions are issued, quantities will be added and will be delivered even to the Mozyr refinery,” Sizov added.
News that oil deliveries to Belarus had been suspended came out the day before. A source explained to RIA Novosti that Minsk did so because it wanted to improve the terms of its contractual obligations.
On January 4 during the day, Belneftekhim said that it had agreed with a Russian company to pump the first batch of oil bought at a price without a premium. According to the TASS news agency, the oil is being supplied by two companies, although the majority of the oil will come from RussNeft.
Transneft spokesperson Igor Demin later told RBC that a request had been issued for 133,000 tons of oil to be pumped to the Naftan oil refinery.
Belneftekhim said on Saturday that “purely as a result of the negative effect of the [Russian] tax maneuver, the cost of oil for Belarusian refineries will increase by more than $20 per ton compared to last year, which is 5% of the 2019 price level”.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his Belarusian counterpart Siarhiej Rumas met on Saturday to discuss energy cooperation.