Uladzimir Siamashka voiced the possibility of oil shipments to Belarus from Venezuela and Azerbaijan.
Belarus will be able to import 21.5 million tons of Russian oil in 2012. First vice Prime Minister Uladzimir Siamashka said that in an exclusive commentary to the Business-news agency.
"For this year, for everyone to be calm, we agreed for 21.5 million tons and we will receive all that", Siamashka pointed out. He emphasized that currently Belarusian refineries "are working in full capacity."
When asked if Belarus had technical possibilities to import 5.3 million tons of Russian oil in IV quarter of 2012, Uladzimir Siamashka said that he did not see a problem with that. "It will mainly be the pipeline which will be used," he specified. "There is proficiency of capacities. In best years we used to pump up to 90 million tons of oil through the Belarusian pipeline system and in this year it was around 65 million tons. Can you feel the difference?"
Uladzimir Siamashka also confirmed that the negotiations with Russia about the balance of oil shipments for 2013 have not been finalized yet (earlier the Russian vice Prime Minister Arkadiy Dvorkovich told journalist about that).
According to the estimation of the Belarusian first vice Prime Minister, if Russia does not agree to the 23 million tons that the Belarusian party has opted for, a renewal of swop-contracted oil shipments is possible from Azerbaijan and Venezuela.
