BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/01/2007

Belarus claims compromise in Russian oil dispute

By Steven Lee Myers

MOSCOW: Belarus announced Wednesday that it had reached a compromise with Russia to end a dispute that has shut a Russian oil pipeline to Europe since Monday, but the Kremlin did not confirm that any agreement had been reached.

The announcement, made by President Aleksandr Lukashenko's office, was the first sign that the dispute could be ending after two days of increasingly hostile remarks and threats.

[Russian oil began flowing again through a Belarussian pipeline late Wednesday, a top Belarussian oil official said, The Associated Press reported from Minsk. Alexei Kostuchenko, general director of the pipeline concern Gomeltransneft-Druzhba, said Russian oil entered the Belarussian system around 10:30 p.m. local time, and was being pumped to Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. He did not give any details about the volume being moved.]

Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky of Belarus said in televised remarks that his country would revoke a $45-a-ton transit fee on Russian oil that it imposed last week, provoking a dispute whose effects quickly spilled into Europe.

Russia had declared the fee illegal and refused to pay it. When Belarus began siphoning oil headed to Europe as payment, Russia's pipeline monopoly, Transneft, shut down the line entirely, prompting refineries in Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary to tap into reserves.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/10/news/belarus.php

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