Contents tagged with Belarus

  • Poland opens oil reserves after stopping supplies from Russia

    The Polish Energy Ministry has decided to use 800,000 tons of oil from its strategic reserves to compensate for the Russian oil that the country has not been receiving, Reuters reports, citing an official spokesperson.

    On 25 April, Poland announced that it had stopped accepting Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline. Warsaw informed Gomeltransneft Druzhba, the Belarusian pipeline operator, that the oil refineries in Poland and Germany cannot accept oil with the quality indicators that were …

  • Belarus completely stops accepting oil from Russia

    Belarus has completely stopped accepting oil through the Druzhba pipeline until all the poor quality oil has been removed. At the same time, Russia claims that the oil contamination was deliberate sabotage.

    Andrey Verigo, CEO of the Druzhba pipeline’s operator, Gomeltransneft Druzhba, announced that Belarus had completely stopped accepting Russian oil through the pipe on Tuesday morning. Transit is expected to resume on 2 May, but only to a limited extent. Verigo believes that it will take “at …

  • Russia withdraws ambassador to Belarus less than a year after his appointment

    Russian Federation Ambassador to Belarus Mikhail Babich was recalled from his post, reported the Russian edition of Kommersant with reference to several high-ranking sources.

    “This has been discussed since last week,” said one of the publication’s sources.

    A few hours after the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin signed the decree it was published on the Kremlin website. The publication says that Babich has been relieved of his duties as the Ambassador and Russia's special …

  • Kremlin accuses Belarus of illegal food supplies to Russia

    The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of Russia (Rosselkhoznadzor) announced that they continue to detect illegal food supplies from Belarus. “Currently, the Rosselkhoznadzor continues to analyze controlled products deliveries from Belarus to the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic transiting through the territory of the Russian Federation. As a result, the investigators have identified another intermediary company JSC Milkilakt, which carries out illegal …

  • Putin and Lukashenko discussed contaminated oil supply from Russia

    At the “One Belt, One Road” summit in China, Vladimir Putin announced that he had discussed the low-quality oil supply situation with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.

    The president said it was necessary to conduct an investigation, not ruling out the involvement of Russian law enforcement and special services if the internal corporate investigation is not enough. “First of all, it is necessary to conduct an investigation at the level of Transneft itself, and to identify the …

  • Belarus loses at least $100 million due to poor quality oil from Russia

    Belarus has partially resumed its exportation of light oil products to Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states, after being forced to suspend it due to poor quality oil from Russia. However, its losses have already exceeded $100 million.

    “We are now assessing the losses we have experienced in April. At present, they are in the region of $100 million in terms of lost revenue from oil products,” commented Vladimir Sizov, deputy head of the Belarusian state oil concern Belneftekhim on Thursday 25 …

  • Ukraine stops Russian oil transit

    The national operator of Ukraine's oil transport system Ukrtransnafta in its message on Facebook announced that on the evening of April 25 Ukrainian side was forced to suspend Russian oil transit via the Druzhba pipeline.

    "In accordance with the terms of the current agreement, Ukrtransnafta has the right to stop accepting Russian oil, if the raw materials do not meet the quality indicators. All material losses are borne by the party who did not comply with their duties," said the operator. …

  • Czech Republic follows Poland, rejects contaminated Russian oil

    The scandal surrounding the incident at Transneft, which resulted in chlorine-containing substances mixing with Russian oil, continues to gain momentum.

    Poland stopped accepting the oil and closed the western line of the Druzhba oil pipeline, which leads to Germany, early on Thursday. Now the Czech Republic has also stopped accepting the Russian oil, Reuters reports, citing two sources in the market.

    Alongside Hungary and Slovakia, the Czech Republic receives oil through the second, southern …

  • Belarus turns away from Russian oil after quality scandal

    By the end of the year, Belarus plans to start buying oil from sources outside Russia after oil with excess levels of chlorine put Belarusian pipelines and refineries on the brink of technological collapse.

    Deliveries from alternate sources will come in from ports in the Baltic States and Ukraine, Deputy Director General of the Belarusian Oil Company (BNK) Sergey Grib said on Tuesday.

    The company is considering suppliers from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Azerbaijan that have grades of a similar …

  • Poland reports deterioration of Russian oil quality

    Poland has recorded a deterioration in the quality of oil received from Belarus via the Druzhba pipeline, reports Forsal citing the Polish pipeline operator PERN.

    PERN received a fax from Gomeltransneft, which reported an increased content of organochlorine compounds in the raw materials, and later “noted this in crude oil that entered Poland”. PERN informed the Polish and German refineries about the decline in oil quality.

    “We are monitoring the situation on an ongoing basis,” stated the …