Russia-Belarus oil dispute negotiations resume

Russian and Belarusian officials resumed negotiations today on ending a trade dispute that brought a three-day shut-off of a main Russian oil pipeline to Europe, Russian news agencies reported.

The talks were led by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and his Belarusian counterpart Seregi Sidorsky, the RIA-Novosti and ITAR-Tass news agencies said.

The dispute centres on Russia’s imposition of a heavy export duty on oil shipped to Belarus.

In response, Belarus levied a transit fee on Russian shipped to European customers in a pipeline crossing Belarus.

On Monday, Russia shut off the flow into that pipeline, claiming that Belarus had siphoned off some 80,000 tons of oil as payment for the transit fee.

Belarus on Wednesday lifted the transit fee and the oil flow resumed, but it remains unclear whether Russia is willing to lift or reduce its duty on oil destined for Belarus; the bilateral talks are aimed at coming up with a final resolution of the dispute.

Belarus’ largely centralised Soviet-style economy depends on cheap Russian energy supplies to remain competitive.

But Russia is moving to end its long-time practice of selling energy at discounted prices to ex-Soviet states.

This year, Russia forced Belarus to pay more than double its prior rate for natural gas imports.