Lukashenka asks oil from Sechin

The ruler proposed Rosneft's CEO Sechin to increase supplies to Belarus.

“If, for example, you offer normal conditions, better than other companies can offer, we can take more oil for processing, of course, if you want. No problem,” Lukashenka said at a meeting with Igor Sechin and president of RussNeft company Mikhail Gutseriyev.

The ruler also proposed to increase gas supplies to Belarus.

“You have almost 50 billion cubic metres of gas. You do not export it, but I think we could reach an agreement in the 'union state'. You could process about 3 billion cubic metres if we construct a new plant. The site has already been prepared. You sell us gas, we agree on corporisation of the plant and on export. That's a good economy,” Lukashenka said.

He added he was ready to discuss the issue with Vladimir Putin. The ruler noted he didn't see any obstacles for supplies of Belarusian oil products to Russia and offered the participants of the meeting to join implementation of projects in chemical industry.

Economist Leanid Zaika is confident Lukashenka needs more oil and gas to keep Belarusian economy afloat.

“Igor Sechin is a FSB officer responsible for Russia's oil and gas sector. He is accountable personally to Putin. Lukashenka has to fulfil his promises on wage growth, so he has to talk to Sechin. It is humiliating to ask Putin directly. This is personal. Lukashenka thought he would 'outsit' Putin, but he failed. His personal resentment cannot allow him to talk to the Russian president directly. Moreover, Putin will not give [oil].

I'd like to repeat that the country needs seven million tonnes of oil for domestic use. Everything above this amount is needed by Lukashenka for selling. Every additional million of tonnes of oil gives a profit of approximately half a billion of dollars,” the expert says.

It should be reminded that Igor Sechin already took part in the talk on energy supplies and outlined a tough position of the Russian authorities on privatisation of Belarusian enterprises.

Minsk and Moscow agreed on the supplies of 5.75 million tonnes of oil for the first and second quarters of 2013. The countries were reported to have plans to sign the annual agreement on oil supplies by the middle of June. Belarus wants to import 23 million tonnes of oil in 2013.