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Belarus made its first step forward towards oil mining outside the country .The opportunity was provided by Lukashenka’s co-thinker and the Non-Alliance Movement mate President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mahmud Ahmadinejad. On Wednesday Belarus and Iran signed the contract on the development of Jofeir oil field.

It is a two- year and two- phase project. The oil mining daily productivity of 15 thousand barrels and 40 thousand barrels is envisaged for the first and the second phases of the project, correspondingly, the oil ministry of Iran reported. The total value of the Jofeir oil field is estimated as 2 billion barrels. The project value is USD 450 million.

The contract was signed by the Belarusneft CEO Alyaksandr Lyakhau on behalf of Belarus and by Iranian Company of Oil Development CEO Siet Ali Beheshtian and Iranian Company of Oil Engineering CEO Mehdi Bazorgan on behalf of Iran. Commenting on the contract signing to the Belarusian information agency ”BelTA” Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Belarus Abdolhamid Fekri pointed out that the agreement was drafted for execution in the shortest possible time “thanks to close relationship of the two countries”. Usually such documents drafting takes much more time, he specified. It is to be mentioned that Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Alyaksandr Lukashenka discussed the projects on joint oil mining in May this year during the Iranian President’s visit to Minsk. Then the Nezavisimaya Gazeta with reference to its sources in the Belarusian government wrote that the outline of the above mentioned oil-field development and the draft propositions were then ready.

Experts remark that the signed contract is the first step forward made by Belarus towards reducing the energy dependence on Russia. The issue of alternative oil deliveries started bothering Alyaksandr Lukashenka at the end of last year. when Russia started talking on transferring to the market terms and conditions in its relationship with Belarus. Since then the Belarusian ruler used to periodically declare that he would find the alternative to the Russian oil .His declarations were accompanied by the skeptical comments of the experts. Meanwhile he set the task for the government to provide the Russian oil 20% share in the energy balance sheet.

During the year “different options of those plans implementation have been considered. It has already been dwelt upon the arrangements between Belarus and Azerbaijan on participation in the oil fields development and the Caspian oil deliveries to the Belarusian oil refineries. Apart from that last year the Belarusian –Venezuelan oil mining joint venture was established. Belarus will be able to mine annually around 10 billion tons of oil, deputy prime minister of Belarus Uladzimiz Syamashka reported. At the same time he specified that the oil mined in Iran and Venezuela is not to be shipped to Belarus as it is very costly. According to him, for example, the delivery of a ton of Venezuelan oil will be USD 35-36 more expensive that the current Russian oil. “We shall sell the oil at the international market thus earning the money for settling accounts with the fraternal Russia”, Lukashenka said in this connection.

Minsk official sources are reluctant to dwell upon their plans in the oil sphere. At the recent press conference deputy chairman of the Belneftekhim Uladzimir Volkau spoke that the alternative oil deliveries were under consideration. “We have to be ready for that”, he said specifying that the deliveries from Russia were still cheaper. Previously the Libyan oil deliveries were considered by the experts as the most likely alternative.