The hour of reckoning has come: the Baltics are losing Belarusian transit
Belarus, which Moscow has been convincing for many years to redirect the transit of its oil products instead of the Baltic states to Russia, may begin transshipment through the ports of the North-West of the Russian Federation as early as 2021.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports this, Kommersant writes.
The Russian Ambassador to Minsk, Dmitry Mezentsev, announced that a corresponding agreement will be signed in the near future.
“According to the draft document published on January 27 by the Russian government, over three years it is planned to supply 2,9 million tons of fuel oil from the Mozyr Oil Refinery and 0,96 million tons of petroleum product oils from the Novopolotsk Oil Refinery through the port of St. Petersburg. Ust-Luga, in turn, will transport 4,3 million tons of gasoline from the Mozyr Oil Refinery, as well as 0,4 million tons of gasoil from the Mozyr Oil Refinery and 1,3 million tons from the Novopolotsk Oil Refinery. Petroleum products will be delivered to the ports by rail,” the article notes.
In addition, we are talking about 3,3 million tons of petroleum products per year out of the 6 million tons that are currently transshipped through the Baltic states.
Sources of the publication in Russia say that in Russia the cost of transshipment will be higher than in Klaipeda, taking into account both the need to pay icebreaker dues in Ust-Luga and the greater distance from target markets.
At the same time, PortNews representative Nadezhda Malysheva says that since the issue of redirecting flows from the Baltic states to Russia is political, the price of transshipment in Russian ports can be adjusted with the participation of the state and will be beneficial to all parties.
“The transport distance from Belarusian refineries to our ports is greater than to the Baltic states, so it is difficult to assess the economic component before Russia announces tariffs,” says Sergei Garamita from Raiffeisenbank, in turn. “But I think the parties will be able to easily agree, including on providing discounts.”
Let us recall that after the former Soviet Baltic republics supported the Belarusian Maidan protesters, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko threatened to redirect transit flows to Russian ports.
See also: Russophobes howled: Russia struck via Latvian ports
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