BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

11/01/2007

Russia may resume oil supplies to Europe within hours -- envoy

BRUSSELS, January 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Oil supplies to the European Union may resume within hours, Russia's Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said after a meeting with European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs on Wednesday.

Chizhov said he had informed the commissioner about the details of the oil crisis between Russia and Belarus and stressed, "The decision of the Belarus government, unprecedented in world trade practice, on the introduction of a duty on the transit of Russian oil was cancelled today."

He said the Belarusian government's decision was as big s surprise for Russia as it was for the European Union. "In this situation the Russian government would have welcomed preemptive information about problems with oil supplies which it did not have," he said.

Piebalgs said the resumption of oil supplies would mean that European companies would not have to look for alternative sources of oil urgently.

He stressed that energy cooperation partners should be informed timely about problems with energy supplies. "Mutual respect is the main factor in relations between partners, especially when it comes to such important and capital-intensive things as oil and gas," he said.

Piebalgs said the latest events would not affect the agenda of the meeting of the EU expert group on oil supplies to be held on Thursday.

He said Europe needs guarantees that such a situation would not occur again.

The commissioner said Russian and Belarusian officials had been invited to the meeting. "We expect good news," he said.

Source:

http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11145610&PageNum=0