BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/01/2007

Belarus introduces duty on transit of Russia oil

MINSK, January 4 (Itar-Tass) - The Belneftekhim petrochemical company has sent an official notification to the Russian Transneft oil company about the introduction of a duty on the transportation of oil across the territory of Belarus via oil trunklines from January 1, this year, a company official announced.

A duty on the transit of oil across the republic's territory is set, in accordance with the Council of Ministers' decision, dated December 31, 2006, at $45 per one tonne of oil.

Transneft company does not have available so far any information about introduction by Belarus of an export duty on Russia's oil. Sergei Grigoryev, Transneft Vice-President, told the Echo of Moscow radio in a live broadcast on Thursday that the company had not received any official papers from Minsk about the introduction of an export duty.

According to the data of the Ministry of Statistics, 90.5 million tonnes of oil were transported via Belarus oil trunklines in the period from January to November 2006, or 93.1 percent as compared with that in the corresponding period of 2005.

Oil is transported in transit across Belarus territory in the direction of Poland, Germany, Ukraine, and the Baltics.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11134062&PageNum=0