BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/03/2007

Belarus gets Venezuelan oil rights

Maria Levitov

Bloomberg

MINSK - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has granted Belarus the rights to develop oil fields in his country, the government of the former Soviet republic says.

The fields were expected to yield up to 2-million tons of oil a year (40000 barrels a day), the government said, according to Belta news service yesterday.

Chavez made the announcement during a meeting with Belarus officials in Caracas two days earlier, Belta said.

Belarus's President Alexander Lukashenko, branded by the US as Europe's last dictator, has drawn international condemnation for human rights abuses and for ordering repeated crackdowns on opposition supporters who call for his resignation.

Lukashenko has turned to new markets in the European Union and now in Venezuela since a bitter trade row largely severed ties with Russia at the start of this year.

The Venezuelan leader has said that establishing closer relations with countries such as Belarus, China and India will help Venezuela to diversify its oil sales. Chavez has said that Venezuela - which was the third-largest Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries oil producer in February, according to Bloomberg data - plans to reduce the percentage of oil exports it ships to the US.

Belarus depends on Russia and other former Soviet countries for its energy. Russia's trade volume with Belarus reached $1,4bn in January, an 8,1% increase from the year- earlier period, Belta said. Russian exports to Belarus reached $869m and were mainly natural gas, oil products and metals, Belta said.

Source:

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/world.aspx?ID=BD4A422013