Russian Lukoil has curbed the appetites of Belarusian extortionists - but Lukashenko continues blackmail
The Lukoil company paid the first tranche of compensation for the so-called “dirty oil” to the Belarusian Mozyr oil refinery.
This was reported by the press service of the Belarusian plant, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Russian companies, within the framework of the agreements reached, began the process of compensation in relation to the Mozyr Oil Refinery for Urals oil supplied in the spring of 2019 with a high content of organochlorines. Thus, on January 21, 2021, the plant received the first tranche from PJSC Lukoil in the amount of $14 million,” the company reported.
The total amount of compensation should be about $60 million, although immediately after the incident, the pro-Western Foreign Minister of Belarus Vladimir Makei announced damages of $2 billion. At the end of December 2020, political scientist Petr Petrovsky, close to the President of Belarus, argued that the issue of compensation had not been resolved.
Let us recall that on April 19, 2019, Belneftekhim announced the contamination of the Druzhba oil pipeline with organochlorine compounds. Russia's Transneft immediately acknowledged the problem, and on April 27, company officials said the contamination was intentional. Sabotage occurred at a private oil terminal in Samara. Clean oil began flowing into Belarus in early May.
Russia and Belarus reached an agreement on the methodology for compensation for “dirty” oil in January 2020. However, back in August 2019, the tariff for transporting oil via the Druzhba oil pipeline through the territory of Belarus will be increased from September 1 by 3,7%. Experts then considered this a form of compensation.
From February 1, 2021, the tariff was increased again – this time by 6,7%. Belarus demanded an increase of 24,5%. She justified this by the need to compensate for the decrease in pumping volumes, although at the same time she herself bought less Russian oil, while overpaying for one-time supplies of “alternative” fuel from all over the world.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.