BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
03/01/2007
Belarus leader threatens Russian oil transit fees
MINSK, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, responding to Moscow's decision to slap full duties on Russian oil exports to Belarus, threatened on Wednesday to charge fees for transit of Russian oil across his country.
"If those in Russia, choking on this influx of petrodollars and other sources of hard currency, are still willing to make a scapegoat of Belarus ... then let's ask the Russian Federation -- so huge and so rich -- to pay us in full for our services," state news agency BelTA quoted Lukashenko as telling his ministers.
His threat follows a series of economic disputes between the two neighbours, which have long planned but never forged a union state, including a row concerning natural gas that could have disrupted supplies to Europe.
"Alexander Lukashenko did not exclude that Belarus may raise the issue of the Russian Federation paying for Russian oil transit across Belarus, for the soil allotted to its oil and gas pipelines, as well as for Russian property in Belarus," Lukashenko said.
Last month Russia's government said it would impose an export duty of $180.70 per tonne of oil exported to Belarus from 2007. Oil exports to Belarus were previously free of tax.
Belarus refineries are estimated to have consumed around 20 million tonnes of Russian crude last year.
Moscow has complained that it is losing billions of dollars by exporting oil to the country duty free, only for Belarus to then profit from selling refined products to European markets.
Russia exports more than 1.0 million barrels of oil per day via the Soviet-era Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline across Belarus to Germany and Poland to refineries, as well as for re-export.
Russia and Belarus this week signed a new gas price deal after last-minute talks beat a Jan. 1, 2007 deadline, narrowly averting potential supply disruptions to Europe.
Earlier on Wednesday Belarus said Russia had suspended imports of its white sugar, effective from Dec. 29, 2006, accusing its political ally Minsk of shipping sugar refined from cane instead of beet. (Additional reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov in Moscow)
Source:
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