Talks on increasing tariff on oil transit from Russia through Belarus 'currently paused' - Russian energy minister

ST. PETERSBURG. Nov 2 (Interfax) - The talks on increasing the tariff on the transit of Russian oil through Belarusian territory "are currently paused," Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov has told reporters.

According to earlier reports, the company Gomeltransneft Druzhba notified Transneft of its wish to raise the tariffs by some 80%. "In a situation of decreasing transit transportation through Belarusian territory, Gomeltransneft Druzhba suggested raising the tariffs on oil transit through the country by 84% to Transneft. There are plans to increase the tariff on oil transportation in the direction of Poland and Germany from $0.91 to $1.67 per 100 tonne-kilometers, and in the direction of Ukraine from $1.14 to $2.09 per 100 tonne-kilometers," a representative of Gomeltransneft Druzhba said. The enterprise said the tariffs on oil transportation through Belarusian territory proposed by Belarusian operators are below those that were established by Ukrainian and Kazakh operators.

Shulginov said in June that Belarus's proposal to increase the tariff on Russian oil transportation via the Druzhba trunk pipeline did not quite suit Russia.

"We will discuss this issue. Supplies are now going more to Germany and Poland, but we should still determine a fair and economically substantiated tariff," he said.

"Supplies are now going there to Germany on the northern branch, we coordinate them. There are no shipments of Russian oil there now. The total volumes are increased every month, primarily by Germany. We look every quarter at how much oil can go through the pipeline system," Shulginov said.

"The supply of 1.2 million tonnes [from Kazakhstan] has now been coordinated for a year; that is, 100,000 tonnes a month. Kazakhstan is not taking part in the discussion as the pipeline does not belong to them. Kazakhstan can decide later to pump more or less," the minister said.

According to Gomeltransneft Druzhba, Ukrtranstafta raised the tariff on oil transit through Ukraine in the direction of Hungary and Slovakia from $3.5 to $4.3 per 100 tonne-kilometers from January 1, 2023. Ukrtranstafta also planned to raise the tariff in two stages, to $5.4 per 100 tonne-kilometers from June 1 and to $6.6 per 100 tonne-kilometers from August 1, 2023.

KazTransOil decided to increase the tariff on oil pumping via the trunk pipelines for export from Kazakhstan from $1.97 to $2.27 per 100 tonne-kilometers from July 1, 2023, it said.

Gomeltransneft Druzhba pumps oil coming from the Russian part of the Druzhba pipeline towards Western and East European countries and supplies oil from Russia to Belarusian oil refineries. The tariffs on oil transportation were increased by nine percent from February 1, 2023.

According to earlier reports, Gomeltransneft Druzhba expects the oil transportation volume to decrease by half in 2023. In 2022, oil transportation in the trunk pipeline system on Belarusian territory decreased by 7.3%, to 49.6 million tonnes. The enterprise transported 53.5 million tonnes in 2021, compared to 61.5 million tonnes in 2020 and 63 million tonnes in 2019.