Oil Refineries to Augment Imports to Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

President of the “Surgutneftgas” Vladimir Bogdanov declared on December 25 that in 2002 his company will raise the oil production to the level of 47-50mln tons. “Izvestia” write that this will be a 14% increase. However, “Surgut” won’t supersaturate the interior market with its petroleum. The company’s import to Belarus will grow by one forth. In 2001 “Surgut” will ship to Belarus 8mln tons of oil (6,5mln to the Novopolotsk refinery and 1,5mln – to Mozyr), while in 2002 – only 10mln.

In 2001 “Slavneft” will supply to Belarus 3mln tons of oil, while in 2002 – 5mln. As said by the “Slavneft” president Mikhail Gutseriev, Belarus refines some 14mln tons of oil, 80% of which falls on “Slavneft” and “Surgut”.

50% of the petroleum products, refined in Belarus, will then be exported. According to the companies, the supplies of oil into the union state aren’t considered export. “Surgutneftgas” president noted: “We call export a situation when we have world prices. So we don’t consider shipments to Belarus to be export, as far as her market doesn’t form world prices.”