BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/01/2007

Belarus duty won't hit Russia oil exports: Kremlin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has received official notification that Belarus has imposed a transit duty on its oil exports but does not expect an escalating trade row to disrupt crude oil supplies to Europe, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko -- described by Washington as Europe's last dictator -- has imposed a duty of $45 per ton on Russian oil crossing its soil in retaliation for Moscow cutting subsidies on energy supplies to Belarus.

"Russia has on many occasions proved itself to be a reliable supplier and there is no threat to deliveries," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to a Reuters inquiry.

Peskov said officials were examining a directive issued by Minsk, which has slapped the fee, effective January 1, on Russian crude pumped through the Druzhba ('Friendship') pipeline complex to Europe.

Belarus trans-shipped 90 million tons (1.8 million barrels per day) of Russian oil last year through the Druzhba trunk line to refiners in Poland and Germany, and through a southern spur to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Those volumes account for nearly two-fifths of Russia's total crude exports, but Peskov ruled out any supply disruptions.

"We are talking about bilateral relations between Russia and Belarus, but nothing here can obstruct the delivery of our energy resources to third countries," he said.

Russia has been Lukashenko's closest ally after the tough-talking former collective farm boss was cold-shouldered by the West over his human rights record.

But the Belarus leader has angrily denounced Moscow for "extremely unfriendly steps" toward its neighbor and said the transit tariffs were his response.

Belarussian state oil firm Belneftekhim said in a statement that it had officially notified Russia of the retroactive imposition of the oil transit duty.

It said the levy was imposed "to secure the economic interests of Belarus," taking into account difficulties faced by the country's oil refiners and Russia's failure to uphold trade and customs agreements.

Just days ago, a different row between Minsk and Moscow over energy briefly threatened to disrupt supplies of natural gas from Russian to Europe.

Belarus threatened to disable a gas pipeline across its territory if a deal was not reached with Russian exporter Gazprom on new prices. Minsk backed down at the last minute.

(Additional reporting by Andrei Makhovsky in Minsk)

Source:

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlebusiness.aspx?type=ousiv&storyID=2007-01-04T112100Z_01_L0496064_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESSPRO-BELARUS-RUSSIA-DC.XML&from=business