Belarus planning to export petroleum products via southern ports
MINSK. Nov 23 (Interfax) - Belarus is exploring alternate routes for petroleum product exports and is planning to begin these exports via southern Russian ports, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Pyotr Parkhomchik said.
"An alternate route for petroleum product exports via southern ports of the Russian Federation is being explored. The agreement with Russia on an oil pricing formula makes it possible to buy oil at a price acceptable to us," the Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA quoted Parkhomchik as saying at the national parliament on Wednesday.
"Given the loss of key markets, industry actors were forced to optimize capacity utilization this year by balancing production and sales volumes in order to avoid overstocking of warehouses," he said.
Compensatory mechanisms employed in oil refining helped overcome the downward trend in development rates, Parkhomchik said. "In particular, new schemes for the export of petroleum products were created in oil refining, which prevented the exports from stopping," he said.
A lot has been done to create alternate routes for Belarusian exports, he said.
"Two intergovernmental agreements were signed with Russia regarding the transportation and transshipment of petroleum products and cooperation in transporting certain types of commodities via corridors in Belarus and Russia. Their fulfillment will ensure sustainable exports of Belarusian petroleum products via ports in the northwestern regions and southern seaports, and will guarantee the access of Belarusian economic entities to services provided by Russian ports," Parkhomchik said.
According to the Belarusian parliament's press service, the lower house adopted a bill on the ratification of a protocol amending the intergovernmental agreement signed with Russia in February 2021 regarding the transportation and transshipment of petroleum products via Russian seaports. The agreement guarantees the amount and range of petroleum products transshipped via ports through 2023. It also sets the fixed price of rail transportation, operator services, and transshipment of the entire annual amount of petroleum products.
The agreement protocol signed on June 23, 2022, enables cooperation with Russian economic entities in the course of transportation and transshipment of Belarusian petroleum products and gives alternate export routes to Belarusian companies via all Russian seaports that transship petroleum products.