The oil and gas row between Minsk and Moscow is still in progress.
In Q4 2016 Russia will supply Belarus with 3 mln tons of oil, Igor Demin, spokesman for Transneft company, told jounalists.
“The approved schedule of oil supplies to Belarus via the main pipeline system in Q4 includes the supply of up to 3 mln tons of oil – 1.5 mln for each of your oil refineries. In Q3, according to the schedule, 3.5 mln tons of oil will be transported to Belarus,” the company’s representative said.
Thus, by the end of the year our country will receive 18 mln tons instead of desired 24 mln, which is a quarter less than the Belarusian authorities expected.
In 2016, another gas conflict between Russia and Belarus started due to underpayments. Against this background Russia cut oil supplies to Belarus, which was harshly criticized by Minsk. The Belarusian side offered not to link the gas issue to the volume of oil supplies.
A schedule of oil deliveries for the year 2017 will be reported in Decembery at the end of the year, Igor Demin said.
“Although, you never can tell. Sometimes negotiations with Belarus drag on, and schedules are approved in January,” he warned.
Belarus’ gross domestic product dropped by 0.3% because Russia limited oil deliveries to Belarus, Prime Minister Andrey Kabyakou said on Friday after delivering his report to president Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
