Belarus and Russia have agreed that Belarus will be buying oil at preferential prices over the next four years. According to the chairman of Belneftekhim concern, Igor Zhilin, the Belarusian side has achieved the increase in deliveries by 12% compared to 2011, as well as has received a price approximately equal to domestic prices in Russia.
Igor Zhilin says Russia will sell oil $400 cheaper in Belarus than in the foreign market of the neighboring countries. This will contribute to rising profitability of oil refining process at the Belarusian enterprises, thus, increasing their income, BelTA informs.
According to Belneftekhim, Russia supplied more than 1.83 million tons of oil during the first month of 2012 in Belarus, which is 5.1 times more than during the same period last year.
70% of Russian oil for the neighboring countries goes to Belarus
According to the operational information of the Russian state-owned enterprises CDU TEK, Russian oil exports to Belarus 70% exceeded the total supplies to the neighboring countries in January 2012. At the same time, Russia’s supplies to a number of other countries, by contrast, declined. In particular, deliveries to Kazakhstan declined by 43.7% as compared to January 2010, while to Ukraine - by 25.5%.
On December 15, Belarus and Russia agreed on terms of oil supplies for 2012-2015. The volume of Russian oil deliveries to Belarus will fully meet the needs of refineries. In particular, 21.5 million tons of Russian oil will be delivered in Belarus in 2012, that is, 3.5 million tons more than in 2011.
The parties also agreed to move to a new pricing formula, according to which the parties shall not apply quantitative restrictions and export duties.
