BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

29/08/2007

Belarus hopes to receive 22 mln tonnes of Russian oil next year

MINSK, August 29 (Itar-Tass) -- Belarus hopes to receive 21.5-22 million tonnes of Russian oil next year. "Negotiations with Russia have begun. Experts of the Economics Ministry and of Belneftekhim concern participate in them," Vladimir Volkov, the concern's vice president, told reporters on Wednesday.

He said this amount of oil would be included in the fuel-and- energy balance for the next year. "Pricing now takes into account price fluctuations in the world markets," Volkov said. He said everything now hinges not only on the price of Russian oil but also on prices of oil products. "If this index is good, the profits of Belarussian enterprises will be high," he said.

At the same time Volkov said that with price rises on Russian oil from the beginning of the year, Belarussian enterprises showed low profits, around five percent for six months. "Profitableness of oil refining plants was lower than last year, but this is not dramatic," he said, answering the question of Itar-Tass. Volkov remarked that price rises on raw materials is a world tendency.

Volkov said that Belarussian oil processing enterprises operate to full capacity after January. He said that on the government's instruction efforts are made to receive oil from different sources. For instance, Belarusneft aims to look for sources of oil supply outside Belarus, specifically, in Venezuela and lran. Meanwhile, Volkov said, Russian oil supplies are enough for Belarussian refineries operating to capacity, and the price of Russian oil is the most acceptable to Belarus.

About 50 percent of oil Russia delivers to CIS countries goes to Belarus. Russian oil supplies to Belarus made up 19.7 million tonnes in 2006.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11826144&PageNum=0

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