TASS: Russia Will Not Supply Dark Oil Products To Belarus In 2019

The new roadmap excludes gray supply schemes.

In 2019, Russia will not supply dark petroleum products to Belarus under the terms of indicative balances signed between the two countries on the supply of petroleum products on Wednesday. A source familiar with the content of the document informed TASS about it.

“Zero indicative balances on the supply of dark oil products were agreed on,” – he says.

According to the source, earlier Belarus re-exported the dark oil products received from Russia, and now, under the terms of the agreement, it does not have such an opportunity.

The official representative of the Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Kozak, explaines that the new agreements between Russia and Belarus exclude the possibility of “gray” schemes in the supply of petroleum products within the framework of the union state, which led to a loss of revenue from the Russian Federation’s federal budget.

“The documents signed following the meeting of the vice-premiers are the result of the long work of the governments of the two countries to remove the long-standing problems in the field of energy cooperation,” – he adds.

Oil products from Russia to Belarus

Earlier on Wednesday, the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation reported that Russia and Belarus had signed a protocol on amending the intergovernmental agreement on regulating the export of oil and oil products, and also agreed on indicative balances of deliveries of oil products by the end of 2019.

The documents were signed following the meeting of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Kozak, with the Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus, Ihar Liashenka, in which the head of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, Alexander Novak, took part as well.

Earlier, Russia wanted to stop duty-free deliveries of petroleum products to Belarus, since the republic fully provides itself with its own petroleum products by refining the Russian oil. As the head of the tax and customs policy department of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, Aliaksei Sazanau, reported, the volume of duty-free deliveries of Russian light oil products to Belarus can be reduced more than six times – from 2 million to 100-300 thousand tons per year, and the supply of dark oil products will be in general stoped.

According to intergovernmental agreements, Belarus can import 24 million tons of oil from Russia per year. Minsk imports for refining only 18 million tons of oil, and the rest of the volume in 2017 can be re-exported. At the same time, Belarus leaves in its budget duties on exports of petroleum products derived from Russian oil, as well as duties on the re-export of petroleum products imported from the Russian Federation.

Sazanov estimated the drop in revenues of the Russian budget from the supply of petroleum products to Belarus, taking into account the restrictions at the level of 100-300 thousand tons at $ 4-10 million per year with the price of oil at $ 60 per barrel.