Belarus buys shipment of Azeri oil

A tanker laden with a Belarusian-bound shipment of Azeri oil arrived at the Odessa seaport in Ukraine on October 19.

by ukrfoto.net

The 84,700-ton shipment was expected to be delivered to the Mazyr oil refinery by rail, said the press office of the seaport.

When reached by BelaPAN on Monday, the press office of the Belarusian State Petrochemical Industry Concern (Belnaftakhim) confirmed that the shipment was to arrive in Belarus soon.

It said that Belarus "is considering various scenarios of oil imports in connection with an insufficient amount of Russian crude supplied to the Belarusian refineries."

This is the first oil shipment bought by Belarus from Azerbaijan in years.

Belarus received a total of 1,455,100 tons of Venezuelan and Azeri oil in 2010 and 2011, with the shipments carried by sea to Ukrainian seaports and delivered to the Belarusian refineries by pipeline or rail.

Belarus received only 3.5 million tons of Russian oil in the third quarter of this year, compared with 5.8 million tons in the first quarter and 5.7 million tons in the second quarter. Russia cut oil exports to Belarus in July-September in response to the latter's failure to pay its gas bills in full.

Under a new deal reached by Belarus and Russia earlier this month, the latter was to restore oil exports to the former to June's level on October 20.

Belarus is expected to receive some five million tons of Russian oil in the fourth quarter of this year.