Business news

Belarusian oil refineries operating at minimum capacity, work in progress to sign new contracts
Belneftekhim confirmed that oil deliveries from Russia had stopped. “Active work is now in progress to sign January contracts,” the source said...

Russia, Belarus set gas prices for January, Febraury
The two countries also signed addendums to the transit and supply contracts with the Gazprom Transgaz Belarus to extend them until 2021...

Belarusian oil service company to develop new gas field in Siberia
Oil Company Yangpur has been part of the Belarusian industrial group Belorusneft since 2013. It has quintupled natural gas extraction thanks to a new natural gas field consisting of six wells in the Metelnoye field in Russia...

Belorusneft beats Belarus’ all-time drilling footage record
In 2020 the Svetlogorsk drilling department is also supposed to commission a second mobile drilling rig ARS-250 and mobilize a drilling crew in OOO Belorusneft-Siberia...

EA praises Belarusian accreditation system
The main goal of the assessment was to confirm the status under the agreements signed with international accreditation organizations (EA, ILAC, IAF) on mutual recognition of accreditation in terms of testing, calibration, certification of products, services, personnel, and management systems...

Lukashenko announces possible changes to Belarusian alcohol industry
He stressed that the country needs to keep control over the production of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, needs to control their sales. The state also needs to bear responsibility for the quality of the products...

Details of Belarusian-Russian talks on oil, natural gas revealed
If Belarus accepts the natural gas price Russia pushes for, it will have to seek alternative supplies just like, for instance, Russia did by starting the construction of the Nord Stream pipeline after encountering problems with gas transit in Ukraine...

Belarus, Russia come to terms on energy resources, specific prices expected within days
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “Today we’ve asked heads of the working group – [First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Dmitry] Krutoi and [Russian Economic Development Minister Maksim] Oreshkin to tell us what issues had been dealt with. Naturally the most complicated issues are left to be addressed. But only the figures as far as energy resources are concerned. We’ve reached a conceptual agreement that next year Belarus will buy roughly 20 billion m3 of natural gas from the Russian Federation. There are no restrictions”...

Belarusian power grid to reduce natural gas consumption to 4bn m3 thanks to nuclear energy
The executive said: “The country consumes about 20 billion m3 of natural gas on the whole while the power grid consumes 10 billion. Once the two units of the Belarusian nuclear power plant are commissioned, the amount of gas consumed by the power grid will drop to 4 billion”...

Belarusian nuclear power plant to get fuel in Q1 2020
The official said: “You know, the delivery of nuclear fuel is not a panacea. We are virtually ready to receive it. We will bring it 1-1.5 months ahead of the physical launch to avoid the slowdown of work on the first unit”...

Prime minister, Rosatom head discuss Belarusian nuclear power plant construction
During the meeting the sides discussed progress in implementing the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction project and exchanged opinions...

Belarus’ business climate assessed by international financial organizations
The Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) is an extensive economic survey undertaken as a joint initiative of the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). The Business Environment 2019 is a project of the International Finance Corporation (IFC)...

PM: 22 out of 34 big investment projects implemented in Belarus
The key investment projects are implemented in mechanical engineering and metallurgy, pulp and paper industry and woodworking sector, light industry, oil processing and petrochemical complex, energy sector and construction industry...

Belarus promises residence permits to foreign specialists after three years
According to the source, the validity period of residence permits for highly-qualified foreign specialists has been extended. The required amount of time they need to live in the country in order to get residence permits later on has been reduced...

Diplomats get closer look at Belarus’ capabilities in IT industry
Asked whether he had managed to surprise the diplomats, Vladimir Makei responded: “Many approached me and said it was a very interesting place, an interesting policy of the company. The most important thing for us is to allow diplomats to learn more about Belarus through participation in these events, through visits to enterprises and companies”...

Belarus’ gold, forex reserves approach $9.2bn
In November 2019, the country’s gold and foreign currency reserves contracted by $34.9 million (or 0.4%) following the growth in October by $362.9 million (4.1%)...

Germany supports Belarus’ efforts to join WTO
Michael Siebert said: “We would like to support Belarus’ accession to the World Trade Organization.” The diplomat noted that Belarus plays an important role as a link between the East and the West. In his opinion, the Belarusian foreign policy has great prospects in this regard

Belarus president talks about four pillars of economic development
Economic development of Belarus will rely on efforts to raise investments, business initiative, foreign trade, and changes in the demographic situation...

Belarusian companies sign contracts worth $120m in Belgrade
The official said: “The total sum of the contracts that have been signed is roughly $120 million. We are talking about the export of Belarusian products. It is quite a good result because, unfortunately, our trade turnover is rather modest”...

EBRD invited to join Minsk-Great Stone rail link project
“We are at the beginning of very important work for us. It is an ambitious investment project to build a high-speed rail link between Minsk and the Great Stone Industrial Park. We are also discussing this project with other financial institutions, searching for the best deals. We would like to invite the EBRD to take part in the project, too,” Sergei Rumas said...