Russia reduces oil supplies to Belarus in connection with the debt for Russian gas. As the correspondent “of Rosbalt”, about it today at the St. Petersburg international economic forum, told journalists the head of Ministry of energy of Russia Alexander Novak.
“We proceed from the fact that the graphs for the third quarter will be lower than expected on the basis of the following: due to the non-payment for delivered gas, and short supply of petroleum products,” — said the Minister.
According to him, in the first quarter of this year, the supply of petroleum products from Belarus amounted to 89 thousand tons instead of the stated 250 thousand tons. In the second quarter supply was not carried out.
As said Novak, the released amounts of oil instead of Belarus will be aimed at exports to third countries.
In March it became known that Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who heads the government Commission for fuel and Energy, recommended that “Tatneft” and “Gazprom” to suspend deliveries of petroleum products to Belarus. Such a recommendation he gave following the meeting of the Commission on 17 February, which discussed the sharp rise in the supply of petroleum products in this country.
Later, Dvorkovich said that we are not talking about the global review of relations between Moscow and Minsk in the oil and gas industry. According to him, the authorities suspect is a member of structure “Tatneft” company “TANECO” and “Salavatnefteorgsintez”, which is included in “Gazprom”, in optimization of taxation in the supply of raw materials to Belarus.
Meanwhile, in April the Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov said that the quality of Russian oil delivered to his country, recently worsened. He noted that between Moscow and Minsk is a constant debate on issues related to the supply of raw materials. According to Kobyakov, until the parties find a common language, but there are moments of “purely technological, structural plan”.
