Russia and Belarus promised on Thursday to keep pumping oil to Europe, after Minsk slapped a duty on transit shipments of Russian crude in a trade row that has shaken the ex-Soviet states’ strategic alliance.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko — branded by Washington as Europe’s last dictator — on Wednesday imposed a transit fee of $45 per tonne on crude pumped westwards through the Druzhba (”Friendship”) pipeline system.
The move was the latest in an escalating dispute in which Russia has imposed duties on oil sales to Belarus, forced Minsk to pay double for gas imports and banned imports of sugar refined in Belarus.
But, despite trading recriminations, both sides said there would be no disruptions to the two-fifths of Russia’s total crude exports that are shipped across Belarus.
”Russia has on many occasions proved itself to be a reliable supplier and there is no threat to deliveries,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft said its shipping plan was unaffected. ”Crude supplies are running normally,” said vice-president Sergei Grigoryev. Russia is the world’s second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia.
Belarus trans-shipped 90-million tonnes (1,8-million barrels per day) of Russian oil last year through the main Druzhba line to Poland and Germany, and through a southern spur to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
”Belarus will strictly fulfil its international obligations to provide freedom of transit across its territory,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Andrei Popov said. ”The actions of Belarus will have no impact on deliveries of oil to third countries.”
Tit-for-tat sanctions
Trade tensions have escalated between Moscow and its former Soviet outposts over the past year, with Ukraine and Georgia both paying dearly for daring to turn to the West after their democratic ”colour” revolutions.
In contrast, the latest row reflects Putin’s anger that Belarus is charging too much for its services as a client state.
Politically, the two countries have much in common, with Lukashenko despising the notion of any democratic revolutions in Belarus with the same disdain as Russia. The two countries have long talked about forming a common state.
But the belief is widespread in Minsk that Russia’s gas offensive is part of a Kremlin strategy aimed at forcing Belarus into a merger on unfavourable terms.
On Moscow’s side, perceptions that Belarus is exploiting a customs union for excessive gain have obstructed integration.
Russia late last year imposed a crude-oil export duty of $180 per tonne to bring a halt to one lucrative scheme in which Belarussian refiners made up to $4-billion a year by buying duty-free Russian crude and exporting finished products. — Reuters