In his words, the 1st tanker with oil for Belarus' Mozyr Oil Refinery left the Turkish port of Ceyhan on 6 March. This oil will be delivered to Belarus across Ukraine via the Odessa-Brody pipeline. “This pipeline is ready to pump our oil,” the press secretary said.
“We have left our comfort zone. We are working with alternative oil suppliers; our diversification efforts will continue. The oil that was supposed to be delivered by pipelines has been offered by oil traders. The experience shows that it is quite possible to work with traders, this is a rather flexible and fast scheme,” Tishchenko said.
Speaking about supplies through the Baltic ports, the press secretary explained that the 2 tankers that arrived in March were not the last ones. This logistics scheme will remain in place. The next tankers are most likely to arrive in April.
Aleksandr Tishchenko also commented on the plans of Belarusian oil refineries to receive around 1 million tonnes of oil in March. He noted that the final amount might be even bigger. “Everything depends on the pace of supplies; for example, the tanker carrying the Norwegian oil arrived at the port later because of bad weather in January,” he explained.
A reminder, the Azerbaijani company SOCAR can supply up to 1 million tonnes of oil to Belarus in 2020. The oil supplies will increase in the years to come.
