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Moscow, Minsk fail to agree on oil and petroleum products transit tariffs

Minsk suggested that the Russian oil transit tariff be adjusted for inflation and 2019 losses, according to the relevant Belarusian ministry

MINSK, January 13. /TASS/. Anti-monopoly regulators of Russia and Belarus failed to reach agreements on Russian oil and petroleum transit tariffs, a representative of the Belarusian Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade said following the talks in Moscow on Monday.

"Representatives of antimonopoly services of Belarus and Russia failed to reach agreements on tariffs on transit of Russian oil and petroleum products via the territory of our country. The talks will continue shortly," the representative was quoted as saying by the BelTA news agency.

According to the Belarusian Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade, Minsk has suggested that the tariff on the transit of the Russian oil and petroleum products via its territory should be adjusted for inflation plus revenues lost due to reduced transportation volumes in 2019.

"In August, we agreed that we would look into virtual transportation volumes of 2019 and revenues lost by Gomeltransneft Druzhba last year due to reduced transportation volumes and take that into account in 2020. That is why it was recommended that the tariff should be adjusted for inflationary component (as envisaged by the methodology), as well as for lost revenues to make up for it this year," the representative was quoted as saying by the BelTA news agency.

Meanwhile, the Russian side has certain questions regarding the calculations made by Gomeltransneft Druzhba, the spokesperson added. "That is why we agreed to continue meetings at experts’ level in the near future to refine those calculations," the latter noted.

In late 2019, Minsk proposed raising the transit tariff by 21.7% as one of the options to compensate for losses due to contamination of the Druzhba oil pipeline with Russia’s off-spec oil last April. As part of an unplanned revision, the tariff on oil transportation via the Belarusian territory has been increased by 3.7% starting September 1, 2019. Belneftekhim Deputy Chairwoman Svetlana Gurina informed in October that when revising tariffs on the transit of Russian oil in 2020 Minsk planned to return to discussion of the compensation for lost profit due to the incident with off-spec oil to the Belarusian operator of Druzhba with Russia.

Head of Belneftekhim concern Andrei Rybakov also confirmed in December 2019 that Minsk wanted to include the losses related to the incident with off-spec oil in the tariff on the transit of Russian oil in 2020. Sources in the oil sector of both countries said then that the Belarusian side wanted to increase the Russian oil transit tariff by 16.6%.