BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

07/01/2007

Energy row turns bitter as Minsk issues court order

MINSK: Belarus, feuding over energy with chief ally Russia, yesterday subpoenaed the head of Moscow's oil pipeline monopoly Transneft to appear in court over administrative charges of illegal oil transits to third states.

Russia's Economy Ministry meanwhile handed a note to the Belarussian ambassador to Moscow, urging Minsk to scrap transit fees on Russian crude transits which it said were threatening stable supplies to consumers in Western and Eastern Europe.

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko - tagged Europe's last dictator by Washington - slapped on Wednesday a $45 per tonne fee on Russian crude oil pumped via Belarus to Europe. The decision is effective from January 1.

In a sign the crisis was deepening, Belarus' state customs service yesterday said it had sent a court subpoena to Semyon Vainshtok, president of Russian crude pipeline monopoly Transneft, ordering him to face a Belarussian court tomorrow.

"Breaching the legislation in force, Transneft has moved through Belarus' customs borders its commodity - crude oil - to third states without declaring it and paying a respective customs fee," a Belarussian customs official said.

"A protocol on administrative violations committed by Transneft president S M Vainshtok has been compiled by customs officials and its copy sent to the company's headquarters."

If found guilty, Vainshtok would have to pay a fine of between 100 and 500 Belarussian minimum wages. A minimum monthly wage is equivalent to around $15 in Belarus.

Transneft vice-president Sergei Grigoryev said: "Today is a day-off. We have not received any telegram from Belarus." He did not elaborate.

Russia is the world's second largest oil exporter and the Druzhba pipeline running via Belarus supplies around a fifth of Germany's demand as well as feeding Poland and other central European countries.

Earlier this week, Moscow forced Minsk to sign a deal doubling the price of imported Russian gas. In December, Russia slapped a full customs duty on all crude exports to Belarus.

Russia calls Belarus' oil transit fees unprecedented and contradicting economic agreements between the two sides. Moscow says it was forced to charge Belarus an export duty on imports of crude oil, because it is being refined and unfairly sold at a profit on to Europe.

Russian Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Sharonov said the government had discussed with the Belarussian ambassador the possibility of talks with an official Belarussian delegation in Moscow on Tuesday.

Source:

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=166546&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=29293

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