BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

08/01/2007

Belarus says it has made 'reduction' of oil supplies to Europe

(AFP)

MOSCOW - Belarus said on Monday it had made a 'reduction' in oil supplies to Poland and Germany, but denied cutting supplies altogether.

'We did not cut it off. We are working. But there has been a reduction,' Alexander Bordovsky, the head engineer at Gomel Transfeft Druzhba, which operates the Druzhba pipeline, told AFP.

An order to reduce supplies had been given by state energy company Belneftekhim, Bordovsky said. 'I cannot say how by much the volume has dropped -- the situation changes constantly.'

Earlier, Polish pipeline company PERN had said that supplies of crude oil from Belarus to the refineries of Polish oil groups Orlen and Lotos and Germany's Schwedt and Mider Spergau had halted overnight.

Belarus is a key transit route for Russian oil and natural gas, but is currently in a trade dispute with Moscow over energy supplies.

Source:

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/business/2007/January/business_January168.xml§ion=business&col=