BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

24/10/2006

Belarus refinery throughput down 19 pct after cut

MINSK, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Throughput at the Mozyr refinery in Belarus is down 19 percent to 25,000 tonnes (183,000 barrels) a day since a reduction in supplies through a Russian oil pipeline, a source close to the company management said on Tuesday.

"Of course, the volumes have decreased. We used to refine 31,000 tonnes per day, and now it's 25,000 tonnes," the source said.

"They of course fell less than 30 percent (as crude supplies did) because we have taken steps and directed all Belarus crude here and raised volumes of railway deliveries." A source at the second Belarus refinery, Naftan, said the reduction, caused by a pipeline leak, was having no effect on its production plans.

"All our figures are according to plan. Daily refining is 22,000 tones. We have taken out one unit for maintenance and work with what we have," said the source at Naftan.

One of Naftan's two Crude Distillation Units (CDUs) is closed for maintenance, trimming its needs until the end of the month.

Russian crude oil pipeline monopoly Transneft reduced shipments to Belarus from Sept. 29, saying it would decide on a permissable level of pressure in the pipeline in December.

In the third quarter of this year, Russia supplied Belarus with 4.5 million tonnes of crude.

Source:

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/061024/3/2rst0.html