President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko demanded to accelerate the modernization of two oil refineries, which until now operated on Russian raw materials.
He stated this today during his address to the people.
“We need to pay special attention to the speedy completion of the modernization of two oil refineries. So that we don’t walk around with our hands outstretched, don’t bow to anyone, but buy oil like everyone else on the world market, process it locally and make a certain profit. We are at the finishing stage. We need to speed up,” Lukashenko said.
Earlier, Lukashenko ordered urgent repairs of the Druzhba oil pipeline, through which Russian oil enters the republic. In this way, he responded to Russia’s attempt to finally block the flow of smuggling from Belarus. Old Man hopes to complicate the transit of Russian oil to Europe.
There have been reports in the Belarusian media that the government of the Republic of Belarus is negotiating the supply of “alternative Russian” oil through Ukraine – Kazakh, Azerbaijani and even Saudi Arabian. The problem is that the equipment of Belarusian refineries is designed to work with high-sulfur Russian oil.