Ukraine increases tariffs for oil transit - Russia is ready to pay
Ukraine raises the tariff for pumping Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline by 18,3%.
“The ongoing destruction of the Ukrainian energy infrastructure has led to a significant shortage of electricity, an increase in its cost, a shortage of fuel and spare parts,” said a letter from Ukrtransnafta sent to the Russian Transneft.
Moscow intends to maintain the volume of resource pumping in 2023, since Germany and Poland have already made an application for cheap pipeline oil, because it is not subject to the "price ceiling" introduced by the EU.
During 2022, the cost of transporting Russian oil has already increased by almost 34%.
Former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oleg Tsarev predicts that the increase in the cost of transit will be covered not by the buyer of oil, but by the supplier.
“As I expected, under the conditions of sanctions on the sale of Russian oil, our oilmen will be forced to agree to an increase in the cost of transit. Applications from Poland and Germany have been filed, plus Hungary, through which the Czech Republic and Slovakia can also receive oil. I doubt that an increase in the cost of transit will increase the cost in contracts. I assume that Transneft's profits will simply decrease and Ukraine's profits from oil transit will increase many times over. Strange war,” wrote Tsarev in his TG channel.
Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Galuzin previously confirmed that Russia intends to maintain oil pumping through Ukraine, despite the increase in tariffs by Kiev.
“As far as we know, in November Transneft confirmed receipt of a notification from Ukrtransnafta about an increase in tariffs for pumping oil through the Druzhba pipeline, which runs through the territory of Ukraine, from January 1, 2023.
I can only add that on December 20, in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel, Transneft President Tokarev said that next year the volume of oil pumped through the southern branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic will remain at this year’s level,” said official.
Economist Alexander Dudchak believes that this state of affairs will only provoke the West to take new unfriendly steps against Russia.
“The applications have been received. Will they be satisfied? If so, what is the point of Russia's response? In this case, they will continue to be rude, realizing that they can pick raisins out of buns all the time - where they can cause damage to Russia without catastrophic consequences for themselves, they will do this, where they have serious problems, they will make exceptions from sanctions. After all, Russia will never refuse? In this case, Russia’s firm position will be respected by its allies and will contribute to rising oil prices,” Dudchak believes.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.