BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/01/2007

Belarus warns it may respond to Russia's oil export policy

Belarus may take adequate measures in response to Russia's oil export policy, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Wednesday.

"We are 100 percent clean before Russia. We've done everything it wanted from us. Today it's high time to demand its promises should be fulfilled," Lukashenko was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying at a governmental meeting.

"If this is not so, we have the right to full freedom of actions. I mean the transit of Russia's oil via Belarus, payment for transit, the rent of land that is being used for gas and oil pipelines and Russia's property here," Lukashenko said.

The Belarussian president instructed the government to submit to Russia proposals in January-March "to pay for everything it gets in Belarus free of charge from military facilities to transit."

"On New Year's Eve Russia took rather unfriendly steps in our trade and economic relations," he said, pointing to gas export and crude price hikes by almost 2.5 times.

Russian gas giant Gazprom and Belarus signed an agreement on gas supplies to the country in 2007 in last-minute talks, averting a threatened gas cutoff to Belarus.

Belarus would buy gas at 100 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic meters in 2007, more than doubling what Belarus paid in 2006 for Russian gas. The deal was clinched in the last minutes of the past year -- 11:58 p.m. Moscow time (2058 GMT) on Sunday.

"We've been disputing with Russia for a long while and I ordered our prime minister to sign this disadvantageous gas agreement. The Russian authorities pledged to resolve oil export problem after a gas contract is signed," Lukashenko said.

He demanded Belarus' oil refineries should be loaded by 100 percent. "Oil refineries should economically normal and profit- making as in 2006, and the budget should not lose a penny," he said.

Lukashenko also insisted the country's demand for petroleum products should be met.

"The people should be absolutely sure that Belarus has enough gasoline, diesel oil, oils and rocket fuel. If I am informed that any filling station has no fuel, you'll have yourself to blame," Lukashenko concluded.

Source:

http://english.people.com.cn/200701/04/eng20070104_338106.html