BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/11/2006

Putin, Lukashenko to discuss Russian losses from oil supplies

MOSCOW, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - The presidents of Russia and Belarus will discuss Friday measures to prevent the Russian budget's losses from oil supplied to Belarus, refined there, and exported to third countries, a source in the Kremlin said.

The source said the volume of crude supplied to Belarus significantly exceeds the country's domestic demand, and the Russian budget sustains major losses from exporting its oil duty-free to Belarus, which sells it to third countries after refining, since "all taxes go to the Belarusian budget."

The source said Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko would discuss means of resolving the problem during Lukashenko's short visit to Moscow Friday.

Russia is the main energy supplier to Belarus. In 2005, oil supplies totaled 19.3 million metric tons and natural gas supplies - 20.2 billion cubic meters. The source said supplies were increased in 2006, as part of a general trend of development in bilateral trade and economic relations.

He said bilateral trade is expected to reach a record $20 billion in 2006 compared to $15.8 billion in 2005.

In January-September 2006, bilateral trade grew by 30.7% year-on-year.

Source:

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20061110/55514068.html

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