Belarus buys first shipment of oil from Saudi Arabia
Belarus has bought the first shipment of 80,000 tons of oil from the Saudi state oil company Saudi Aramco, announced the spokesman of Belneftekhim concern Alexander Tishchenko.
According to him, the oil tanker is expected to arrive on May 11 in the port of Klaipeda. He did not rule out new purchases from Saudi Aramco in the future. According to Tishchenko, it will depend "on the price situation and the situation in the market."
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announced the deals between Minsk and Riyadh in February this year. According to him, the country is negotiating oil supplies with all players of the world oil market, including the United States and the UAE, in order to diversify imports. Belarus started the search for alternative oil suppliers during after the deliveries of oil from Russia stopped the first quarter of this year. Minsk is considering importing raw materials through the ports of Odesa and Klaipeda. In April, Belarus received 170,000 tons of oil through these ports.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russian companies are ready for May deliveries to Belarus in the originally envisaged volume - about 2 million tons. In the first quarter of this year, Russian companies did not supply oil to Belarus, as the sides could not agree on terms. Regular deliveries resumed only in April.