Russian Railways Try To Get Belarus Off Baltic Ports

The Russian Federation provided a 25% discount on the transit of oil products in a northerly direction.

JSC “Russian Railways” (RZHD) provided a 25 per cent discount on the transit of oil from the stations Barbarov and Navapolatsk (Belarus) in the direction of ports in the north-west Russia. This is stated in the decision of the Russian Railways Board meeting, published in the corporate edition Gudok.

The reduction factor of 0.75 (this means a 25% discount) applies to the transportation of gasoline, diesel and fuel oil in tanks from Barbarov and Navapolatsk Belarusian railway stations in the direction of ports in the north-west of Russia, tut.by writes.

The discount is valid until 31 December 2018.

Earlier it was reported that the JSC Russian Railways wants to give an unprecedented 25% discount on the transportation of Belarusian oil products to the Russian ports to take off goods from the Baltic ports.

The discount will make the Russian Railways tariffs for this direction be comparable with the tariffs for transportation via the Latvian port of Ventspils and the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda, and the attracted volume of highly profitable transportations of petroleum products will provide the JSC Russian Railways with additional revenue – about 8 billion Russian rubles per year (more than $ 126 million.).

Let us remind, the Russian media have earlier informed, that the Kremlin proposed to capture the obligations of Belarus to export certain volumes of oil via Russian ports in an intergovernmental agreement, regulating the duty-free oil transportation from Russia to Belarus for processing at Belarusian oil refineries.

Today, more than 90% of the exports of oil products from Belarus are directed to the Baltic countries and Black Sea ports of Ukraine.

Last week the port of Klaipeda expressed optimism that the flow of goods from Belarus was not to be reduced.

We remind that this is not a new idea. Russia has repeatedly tried to implement such plans. However, it didn’t work out, as it’s not profitable for Belarus.

We also recall that in 2013 Belaruskali bought 30% of the Klaipeda terminal.

It is expected that this will result in difficult negotiations with Russia and complication of relations with Lithuania and Latvia.