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Russia to supply 4.7 million tons of oil to Belarus in Q4

Russia will supply 4.7 million tons of oil to Belarus in the fourth quarter of this year, Russia’s Prime news agency reported with reference to a source in the government.

The unnamed official said that Belarus had agreed to the amount and pledged to deliver 200,000 tons of 92 octane gasoline to Russia in the period.

The two Belarusian refineries have the joint capacity to refine up to 1.9 million tons of crude oil monthly.

The Russian energy ministry directed in September that the amount of crude oil to be supplied to Belarus in the fourth quarter of the year should be reduced by 26 percent to four million tons in response to Belarus’ failure to fulfill its obligations regarding the supply of petroleum products to Russia. Russia had originally agreed to supply 5.3 million tons of oil to Belarus from October through December.

Belarus and Russia agreed in late 2011 that a total of $21.5 million tons of Russian crude would be supplied by pipeline to Belarus in 2012 - 3.5 million tons more than in 2011 - with the possibility of supplying up to three million tons more by rail. Belarus made a commitment to supply Russia with 5.8 million tons of high-quality petroleum products in 2012, including 2.1 million tons of gasoline, 3.5 million tons of diesel fuel and 0.2 million tons of aviation kerosene, but it reportedly supplied only 144,300 tons of petroleum products in the first eight months of the year. //BelaPAN