BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/01/2007

Transneft says oil supplies to Europe not resumed yet

MOSCOW, January 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's oil transportation company Transneft has so far not resumed oil supplies to European consumers, the company's Vice President Sergei Grigoryev said.

"As of this moment, we have no official and duly executed documents from Belarus on the resumption of oil transportation on their territory," Grigoyev told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

He made an assumption that Belarus might have resumed transporting "the oil that it illegally drew from us. : But they did not inform us aboutthat."

Earlier, Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Andrei Sharonov said Belarus had about 80 tonnes of Russian oil that had been "put on hold" and it could be used to resume the operation of the Druzhba pipeline and keep it going for four hours.

Some East European countries said they had been informed by Belarus that the pipeline would start operating before the end of the day.

However, the Hungarian Ministry of Economy and Transport said it had no information confirming that oil supplies to the country by the Druzhba pipeline had resumed.

"We have no such information," ministry spokesman Gergely Abraham said.

Hungary will use its strategic oil reserves until oil supplies from Russia resume. Minister of Economy and Transport Janos Koka has authorised the use of up to 15,000 tonnes of oil a day from the reserves.

Meanwhile, Russia and Belarus have resumed talks on bilateral trade relations in Moscow.

Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref leads the Russian delegation to the talks. The Belarusian delegation is headed by Vice Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov.

"The talks will cover the entire agenda of trade relations," Sharonov said.

Source:

http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11145501&PageNum=0