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10 February 2020, 10:01

Belarus to purchase Russian oil at global prices

MINSK, 10 February (BelTA) – First Deputy Premier Dmitry Krutoi commented on the Belarus-Russia talks in Sochi as he met with reporters on 9 February. He noted that Belarusian oil refineries will purchase oil from Russian companies at global prices, as Belarus insisted on, BelTA has learned.

“As far as oil is concerned, the Russian side agreed that Belarusian oil refineries will purchase oil from Russian oil companies at global prices. By the way, the Belarusian president, the Belarusian side were pushing for it all the way during the talks. It was reiterated that Belarus does not need any special or exclusive terms. We just want to buy oil at global prices, and that's all,” Dmitry Krutoi said.

In his words, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed with this approach. “More than that, he promised all kinds of assistance in Belarus' talks with Russian oil companies, so that oil supplies to the Belarusian oil refineries were on the terms I have mentioned before,” the first deputy premier said.

He noted that the Russian oil market is very heterogeneous. He added that the talks were on hold for half a month in January because Russia had New Year holidays. “However the contacts have resumed and gained momentum between our economic entities. As far as we know, about 100 million tonnes of oil in Russia is produced and supplied by small companies. We got used to the fact that oil is provided to Belarus by the big five – Rosneft, Lukoil, Tatneft and other companies. We will certainly continue talks with them, too. Russia's energy minister has promised to meet with all of them one of these days to set out new terms of operation on the Belarusian market and facilitate the signing of price contracts as soon as possible. A the same time Belneftekhim Concern and our oil refineries keep working with absolutely all players of the Russian oil market. We will embark on talks with them next week,” Dmitry Krutoi said.

The first deputy premier noted that the January talks revealed that Belarus was viewed by Russian oil companies as an export market, which was the problem. “There were certain restrictions regarding the access to the Transneft transit oil pipe. The Russian president promised to remove all these restrictions. They were imposed for all export markets and export supplies by a separate presidential decree. This decree will not apply to Belarus anymore. In other words, any company that wants to cooperate with our oil refineries will get access to the pipe, to the transit and supplies through Transneft that will act as an agent. There will be no restrictions here. We expect small and medium-sized companies to show bigger interest in our country and our market, we also expect to sign these contracts soon,” Dmitry Krutoi said.

He informed that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized Dmitry Kozak to supervise oil talks with Belarus. Up until recently Dmitry Kozak was in charge of the energy sector in the capacity of Russia's vice premier, now he is Deputy Head of the Russian President's Administration. “He is familiar with the details of our cooperation and he promised to coordinate and remove all emerging issues at his level. However, we believe that the entire oil issue will be resolved altogether soon, which attests to great progress in our current agreements,” Dmitry Krutoi said.

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