Oil flow likely to resume soon, Belarusian official says

Jan 10, 2007, 17:59 GMT

Moscow/Minsk - Hours after Belarus repealed a tariff on Russian oil, a Minsk official Wednesday evening said while a three- day stoppage of Russia's vast oil supplies had not yet ended, the flow of oil would be resumed 'in the nearest future.'

'Oil deliveries will resume,' Andrei Kobyakov, Belarus' deputy prime minister, was quoted by Interfax as saying at the Russian Economic Development and Trade Ministry in Moscow.

Unidentified officials at Gomeltransneft, a Belarusian operator that had cut supplies to Europe on Monday, have said the flow may resume as early as Thursday.

The announcements came as Belarusian and Russian oil transit companies denied reports from a Slovakian pipeline operator that the flow had been restarted.

That report followed a decision by Belarus' Cabinet to repeal a tariff that led to the standoff with Moscow and the stoppage in oil transit, which has left a number of European countries without Russian oil.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone with Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday, and the Cabinet in Minsk repealed the 45-dollar per ton tariff shortly afterward. Details of the conversation have not been made public.

The tariff's repeal also brought Russia closer to negotiations with Belarus at which Minsk hopes to get Russia to repeal its own tariff on gas exported into Belarus.

The Russian tariff, at 180 dollars per ton of oil, could be discussed as early as late Wednesday.

'We are satisfied with the decision of the Belarusian (Cabinet). Preparations are under way in the ministry, and, I hope, we will be able to begin discussions on all types of trade relations this evening,' Russian Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Andrei Sharonov said in remarks carried by Interfax.

Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky also said he was planning to fly to Moscow for talks with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov on Thursday.

The Druzhba pipeline was stopped Monday morning by Gomeltransneft after Russia balked at the now-repealed tariff. Moscow then cut the flow of Druzhba - Russian for 'friendship - on its end as well.

The pipeline, which pumps 80 million tons of oil into Europe each year, is one of the continent's biggest sources of the fuel. Russia supplies Europe with 200 million tons of oil per year, roughly a quarter of Europe's needs.

Poland, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine have all either been cut off entirely from the flow or seen reduced delivery volumes as a result of the dispute.

While European reserves have protected consumers against serious oil shortages, the disagreement has caused the EU to once again question Russia's reliability as an energy partner.

Russia cut off natural gas supplies to the Ukraine amid a pricing dispute just over a year ago, and many in the EU worry the source of a third of their gas and a quarter of their oil needs may hold those supplies hostage in order to settle political disputes.