BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

12/01/2007

Russian, Belarusian Prime Ministers In Talks Over Oil Tariffs

Negotiations were underway in Moscow Friday between the Russian and Belarusian prime ministers to settle an oil tariffs row that halted Russia's vast oil supplies to Europe for three days earlier this week.

Mikhail Fradkov, Russia's prime minister, entered talks with Belarusian counterpart Sergei Sidorsky at 10:30 a.m. Moscow time (7:30 a.m. GMT), Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for the Russian Cabinet as saying.

The two heads of government started the meeting with one-on-one talks but, the unnamed source added, and were to be joined by delegations from their respective countries.

Moscow on Thursday opened discussions with its former Soviet partner over a tariff Russia introduced January 1 on oil it sends to Belarus for refinement.

The massive Druzhba pipe, which pumps 80 million tons of Russian "black gold" into Europe each year, was shut down Monday by Belarus after the Kremlin refused to accept a Belarusian transport tariff that was levelled in response to the Russian tax.

Exports of Russian oil, which covers approximately a quarter of Europe's needs, were halted for three days as Moscow insisted it would start talks with Minsk only after Alexander Lukashenko's pariah state cancelled its retaliatory tariff and resumed the oil flow.

After Lukashenko called Russian President Vladimir Putin Wednesday, Belarus repealed its tariff of 45 dollars per ton of oil and began pumping oil into Europe.

The Kremlin started negotiations on its own, 180-dollar-per-ton tariff Thursday, with Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref and Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov representing their respective sides.

Neither Russia nor Belarus has spoken about the results of the first round of discussions, leading many to believe little was achieved.

The spokesman for Russia's Cabinet added that Gref, as well as Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, and their deputies, would soon join Fradkov to complete the Russian delegation in Friday's talks.

Poland, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine were all either cut off entirely from the flow or saw reduced delivery volumes as a result of the dispute.

While European reserves protected consumers against serious oil shortages, the disagreement has caused the EU to once again question Russia's reliability as an energy partner.

Russia cut off natural gas supplies to the Ukraine amid a pricing dispute just over a year ago, and many in the EU worry the source of a third of their gas and a quarter of their oil needs may hold those supplies hostage in order to settle political disputes.

As a result, the EU pledged this week to draft a new energy document outlining plans to reduce reliance on Russia and other outside parties for its energy needs.

2007 DPA

Source:

http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_8654-Russian-Belarusian-Prime-Ministers-In-Talks-Over-Oil-Tariffs.html

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