BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/01/2010

Russia, Belarus to sign oil supply deal soon

MOSCOW, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Russia and Belarus are close to solving their oil supply dispute and signing a new deal, a top Russian official said on Wednesday in a comment to soothe fears over Russian oil supply disruptions to the European Union.

"There are results. They are positive," First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told reporters. Asked if the deal could be signed on Wednesday, he replied: "We hope so".

An industry source told Reuters the deal might have been already signed, but gave no details.

Europe, mindful of a dispute in 2007 that cut Russian oil supplies through Belarus, is keen for the ex-Soviet states to resolve the row.

The Belarussian spur of the Druzhba pipeline supplies about one-tenth of Europe's shipments from West Siberia, going namely to Poland and Germany.

The dispute over oil pricing and tariffs has practically cut off crude supplies to Belarussian refineries.

The ex-Soviet countries have agreed on the amount of oil that Moscow will supply to Minsk duty-free, a Russian source said on Tuesday, adding the deal now depended on agreeing transit fees for the oil shipped via Belarus to European customers.

Talks between Russia and Belarus have broken down repeatedly since the start of the year.

Supplies to Europe have not yet been affected, but shipments to the two refineries in Belarus were disrupted in the first few days of 2010, leading to a jump in the oil price.

(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya, writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov, Editing by Vladimir Soldatkin and Amanda Cooper)

Source:

http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=7725974&subject=markets&action=article


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