MINSK, 17 March (BelTA) – Mozyr Oil Refinery has launched the processing of the first batch of Azerbaijani oil, spokesman for the Belarusian state petrochemical concern Belneftekhim Aleksandr Tishchenko told BelTA.
“Oil delivered by the first tanker to Odessa reached Mozyr Oil Refinery via the oil pipeline. The plant has began processing it,” Aleksandr Tishchenko said.
The oil was delivered to the Belarusian plant via the pipeline from Odessa.
BelTA reported earlier that the Azerbaijani company SOCAR will ship about 250,000 tonnes of oil to Belarus in March. The first two tankers with oil for Mozyr Oil Refinery have already arrived in Odessa. Belneftekhim Chairman Andrei Rybakov was quoted as saying that SOCAR may ship up to 1 million tonnes of oil to Belarus in 2020.
Apart from that, four tankers with oil for Belarus are expected to arrive in the Klaipeda port in March. The first one reached the Lithuanian port on 4 March. Another one is expected today.
Major Russian oil companies stopped shipping oil to Belarus on 1 January due to the absence of an agreement on prices. First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Dmitry Krutoi said that Belarus believes it is economically inadvisable and pointless to pay the same amounts of premiums to Russian companies. On 11 March, Belarus Prime Minister Sergei Rumas said that Belarus had presented new oil acquisition proposals to Russia.
Belarusian oil refineries are expected to get a total of about 1 million tonnes of oil from various sources in March. In January and February the oil refineries operated at 50% of their capacity and processed about 1.8 million tonnes of oil.
