BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

29/01/2007

Belarus Denies Reports of Broken Oil Transit Agreement with Russia

MosNews

On Sunday, Jan. 28, Belarus rejected earlier reports, which appeared in Russian and foreign media, regarding supposed retraction of oil transit agreement with Russia.

On Friday, Jan. 26, Belarusian President Alexander Lukoshenko said that no transit agreement for February was signed. Lukashenko said the country had not signed an oil delivery contract for February because Russian oil companies were demanding prices above world levels. Belarus will charge a transit fee on Russian oil exported to Europe via its territory by these companies, he promised.

"We have to compensate for these losses. We're not going to argue with them, it's their oil. But we will pump this oil without any losses for us," he said, quoted by the Associated Press.

Earlier this month, Russia suspended oil supplies to Belarus, disrupting supplies through a Belarusian pipeline to Eastern and Central Europe. The dispute was sparked by Belarus' decision to impose transit fees on Russian oil in retaliation for hefty Russian duties levied on oil exports to Belarus.

Facing the threat of a full-scale trade war with its powerful neighbor, which its economy is closely tied to, Lukashenko ultimately backed down, agreeing to pay some duties on Russian oil and sharply reducing the profits it had made by refining duty-free Russian oil and exporting the products.

However, on Sunday the head of the presidential press service Pavel Legki said that there was no talk of cancelling oil transit agreement. Such reports are damaging Belarus-Russia relations, Legki said.

Source:

http://www.mosnews.com/money/2007/01/29/belarustransit.shtml