The Russian government has approved an agreement on the transportation and transshipment of oil products from Belarus through Russian ports. The Ministry of Transport was entrusted to conclude it. The corresponding order has been published on the official Internet portal of legal information.
The department will conduct negotiations and, after their completion, will sign on behalf of the Cabinet. In the future, it will be possible to make changes to the document that do not change its fundamental nature.
Negotiations on the supply of Belarusian goods through the ports of the Leningrad region have been going on for the past few months. The reason for them was the sanctions of the Baltic countries, which did not recognize the results of the elections in Belarus and Alexander Lukashenko as president. Minsk decided to punish neighboring republics and asked for help from Russia.
The draft agreement implies a take-or-pay clause. Belarus will be obliged to pay for the services of ports, even if the actual transshipment is less. For the period 2021-2023, supplies of 9.836 million tons are envisaged.
First of all, Belarus is interested in the export of oil products. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak estimated the volume of transshipment at 4-6 million tons, but earlier in Moscow did not confirm that the agreement would actually be concluded.
The main problem remains the cost of such supplies, which will be significantly higher than through the ports of the countries of Latvia and Lithuania. The initiative will require significant investments in infrastructure – construction of pipelines or modernization of the railway. In addition, the problem of the cost of services of the ports themselves remains.
The current President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, at a meeting with the Governor of the Leningrad Region Alexander Drozdenko, even suggested building a joint seaport. Moreover, the money of the Belarusian side will be of Russian origin. Lukashenko wants to pay off his share with a portion of the $ 10 billion loan that the republic received from Russia for the construction of a nuclear power plant.