“Transneft” starts to build oil pipeline bypassing Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

Russian-Belarusian relations in the sphere of oil have passed through another crisis. Transneft CEO Semyon Vainshtok has stated that a final decision had been made to start building an oil pipeline bypassing Belarus. “We will develop the Baltic Pipeline System along the Unecha (on the border with Belarus) to the port of Primorsk”, he said. “The first stage is to increase the capacity of the BPS by 50 million tonnes, and we are actively working on this. One hundred and ninety-six prospecting engineers are to start working on the ground on February 12,” Vainshtok told Vesti television news program. “We shall manage with minimal terms in construction of this rather complicated project”. Thus, Transneft has carried out Vladimir Putin’s commission mentioned at his press-conference on February 1, and would try to decrease transit risk caused by Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regime while exporting Russian oil.

As “Vremya Novostei” writes today, earlier experts evaluated this project of construction of “Druzhba” branch to Primorsk at 2-2.5 billion dollars. Mr Vainshtok hasn’t specified where this sum would be taken. “This is of course very costly, very very costly. We discussed this with colleagues that if we did not have such big risks from adjacent states, we would not have to spend so much money on this,” he said. Mr Vainshtok’s statement hasn’t been commented by oil-industry experts. Transportation costs would grow considerably in connection with the new route of oil transportation (oil pumping via oil pipeline is much cheaper than transportation by sea, besides, “Druzhba” route is shorter. Meanwhile, they would not be able to sell oil at a higher price in Europe, it means that they would have to defray all costs).

As an answer to the statement of the head of the Russian transportation company Belarusian officials and experts started to say that by 2015 their country would receive at least 20% of oil via ports of Black and Baltic Sea, thus decreasing its dependence on deliveries from Russia. Besides, yesterday Minsk decided to raise tariff for Russian oil transit via the territory of the country. The tariff hasn’t been changed for 10 years. Despite of eloquent statements of Lukashenka about a necessity to compensate to the country the cost of energy products imported from Russia, oil transit cost increase was comparatively insignificant, at about one third. Previously Russian oil industry paid about 166 million dollars annually to Belarus, and now they are to pay about 244 million dollars. Mr Vainshtok told to Interfax that he had heard about tariffs growth: “We have information about that, but it hasn’t been received from our Belarusian colleagues officially. I do not think that it is a repetition of the New Year story, I think common sense should prevail, as there is good will”.

By the way, in the end of the last year Belarusian government introduced a rent for land under oil and gas pipelines, which would give about 5 million dollars a year to the budget. Belarus continues its pinpricks, but it is not going to stop apparently. Russia hasn’t defended itself from this. In the agreement signed by prime ministers in January nothing is said about a possibility of introduction of any new payments or increase of the existing ones.