Minsk earlier
announced a sharp deterioration in the quality of oil coming from Russia
through the section of the trunk oil pipeline Gomeltransneft Druzhba.
MINSK, April 23.
/TASS/. Belarus has temporarily suspended exports of light oil products to
Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic countries, justifying this by low-quality oil
supplies from Russia to Belarusian oil refineries, Deputy Director General of
the Belarusian Oil Company (BNK) Sergey Grib said on Tuesday.
"At the moment
contractual obligations are suspended until the issue with Russian oil is
resolved," he said. Grib noted that "supplies of light oil products -
gasoline and diesel fuel - to Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic countries has been
suspended."
"Decline of
exports occurs in order to ensure full domestic market," he explained. At
the same time, he clarified that "those products that are not consumed in
the markets of neighboring countries, the so-called heavy oil products, we sell
through the Baltic Sea ports towards the countries of the so called "far
arc" region (Asia, Africa and Latin America)." Grib said that the
company is now working to ensure that no sanctions from contractors follow the
suspension of light oil products exports. He added that the Belarusian side is
"in the process" of assessing damage from suspending exports of oil
products.
On Friday, April 19,
Belarus announced a sharp deterioration in the quality of oil coming from
Russia through the section of the trunk oil pipeline Gomeltransneft Druzhba.
The company informed operators of the Druzhba main oil pipeline from other
countries about the current situation. The source of pollution was found on the
Samara-Unecha section of the Druzhba pipeline.
Source: ITAR-TASS
23-04-2019
