Russia, Belarus on the verge of new energy war
Sanctions are looming after Russian media have uncovered a secret "solvents" scheme involving Latvia.
Belarus is refusing to return the fuel made from Russian oil back to Russia, the Russian Ministry of Energy told "Izvestiya". The fuel is being sold to the West under the guise of solvents. Russia is going to compensate for the budget loss of one billion dollars caused by Belarus. According to the previously confirmed plan, Belarus should supply 2.1 million tons of petrol and 3.5 million tons of diesel oil made from Russian oil to the Russian market by the end of 2012. Belarus has fulfilled the plan by only 2%, Russia claims.
Belarus will lose millions of dollars because of such supplies. "Belneftekhim" buys Russian oil at a price higher than the internal Russian price and will have to sell oil products at low Russian prices.
Economist Syarhei Chaly thinks that the information presented by Russian mass media is based on politics rather than economy. The expert says that the Russian authorities should better deal with the Russian companies that used suspicious schemes to sell oil to Belarus in the first place.
According to the Customs Union Agreement, Russia has been supplying duty-free oil to Belarus since 2011.
