Opinions & Interviews

Oil shipments from small Russian companies to Belarus expected to create competition

Andrei Rybakov. An archive photo

MINSK, 3 March (BelTA) – Oil shipments from small Russian companies to Belarus will create good competitive environment, BelTA learned from Chairman of the Belarusian state petrochemical concern Belneftekhim Andrei Rybakov.

The official said they are working on alternative oil deliveries, including from Russia. “We’ve traditionally worked with large suppliers. We are now working hard on getting oil of the Urals variety to our oil refineries from small oil extracting companies. We expect the first shipments in March. We are going to expand cooperation later on. It will also create good competitive environment both on the Belarusian market and the domestic market in Russia,” Andrei Rybakov is convinced.

BelTA reported earlier that five companies will supply oil to Belarus without a premium in addition to the group of companies SAFMAR. “These five companies are new suppliers we have not worked with yet. Together with SAFMAR we will have six companies to sell us oil at a market price without a premium in the first quarter of the year,” Press Secretary of the Belarusian state petrochemical concern Belneftekhim Aleksandr Tishchenko told BelTA.

It was reported later that the Russian group SAFMAR will supply 300,000 tonnes of oil to Belarus in March while the company UDS Oil will deliver 50,000 tonnes. Speaking about mass media speculations about possible oil acquisitions from Rosneft and Tatneft, Aleksandr Tishchenko noted that no negotiations on oil deliveries in March are in progress with these companies.

The shipment of 160,000 tonnes of Russian oil bought for Belarusian oil refineries through traders without paying a premium is expected to reach the Klaipeda port in March as well.

Apart from that, Belneftekhim’s deal with the Azerbaijani company SOCAR provides for shipping about 160,000 tonnes of oil by two tankers in March. Oil will be delivered across Ukraine via the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline.

On 1 January Russia suspended oil deliveries to Belarus because the sides had failed to come to an agreement about the price. 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. Representatives of the government also stated that all possible options for alternative deliveries were being looked into.

On 3 March Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko hosted a government conference to discuss ways to ensure effective operation of the country’s oil refining complex in 2020 and later on. At the beginning of the conference Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Rumas said that since December 2019 Belarusian oil refineries have been forced to operate with reduced workload. “In January-February 2020 they refined 1.850 million tonnes of oil. Naftan processed 892,000 tonnes of oil while Mozyr Oil Refinery processed 962,000 tonnes,” he said.

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