MINSK, 12 March (BelTA) – Oil pipelines are ready to pump Azerbaijani oil from Ukraine to Mozyr Oil Refinery, BelTA learned from Aleksandr Tishchenko, Press Secretary of the Belarusian state petrochemical concern Belneftekhim.
The spokesman said: “We expect the arrival of a tanker with Azerbaijani oil in the Odessa port this afternoon. Once it is unloaded, oil pumping will begin, the oil pipelines Odessa-Brody and Brody-Mozyr are ready for it, all the inspections and expert evaluations have been carried out. Moreover, we already have experience of working with this direction and with this kind of oil.”
Speaking about the ability of Mozyr Oil Refinery to refine oil of the Azeri Light variety, the press secretary noted it will not be a problem. “Light oil is not a problem. We are working with oil [of the Urals variety] delivered via the Druzhba oil pipeline and from Russian companies. This is why there will be no problems with mixing,” he explained.
According to Aleksandr Tishchenko, oil pumping via the pipelines to Mozyr Oil Refinery does not affect shipments in other directions. “Preparations have ensured uninterrupted oil transit,” he stressed.
Speaking about the northern direction (Baltic ports), Aleksandr Tishchenko said that this month's second oil tanker with oil bought via traders is supposed to arrive in mid-March.
BelTA reported earlier that the Azerbaijani company SOCAR will ship about 250,000 tonnes of oil to Belarus in March. The first tanker with oil for Belarus left the Turkish port of Ceyhan on 6 March. Two more tankers with oil for Belarus are supposed to arrive in Odessa from Novorossiysk and Supsa.
About 160,000 tonnes of Russian oil bought via traders without paying a premium will be delivered via the Klaipeda port in March.
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 was quoted as saying that Belarus believes it is economically inadvisable and pointless to pay the same amounts of premium to Russian companies. On 11 March Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Rumas said that Belarus had presented new oil acquisition proposals to Russia.
