“Vedomosti”: “Oil supplies without contract”
Minsk and Moscow continue to dispute oil prices.
Moscow and Minsk have entered the new year without having come to terms on oil prices. Russia has not terminated oil supplies, but oil traders, including MSP-Oil, owned by Vladimir Bryntsalov, a well-known businessman in the 1990s, may suffer losses.
Since December 31, a Minsk delegation has come to Moscow three times at least—on New Year's Eve, Christmas, and last weekend—to discuss the 2010 oil supplies. The meetings brought no results.
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The dispute arose about export duty: Belarus annually buys 20-25 million tonnes of fuel from Russia, but an agreement on duty rate discounts was active until December 31. The 2009 discount was 64.4%, and Minsk wanted to keep it. However, prior to the holidays, the Russian government warned Belarus that, starting in 2010, the republic will receive duty-free oil (6.3 million tonnes) for domestic consumption only, with the rest to be taxed at the full duty rate.
Minsk said this was contrary to the framework of a single customs space. However, the Russian government holds a different position: hydrocarbons exports are to be governed by a separate agreement, said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on January 4.
Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin told Mr Putin at the time that oil was still being supplied to Belarusian refineries, but he did not specify the terms of the supplies. A spokesman for the Energy Ministry declined to comment on the situation. A ministry official said recently that current exports should be duty-free - within the 6 million tonnes quota – and then a new inter-governmental protocol is to be signed. The dates of a new round of talks are not yet known, but Russia is open to talks any time, said Dmitry Peskov, Mr Putin's press secretary.
However, there are still other problems with Minsk: the duty rate discounts have not only subsidised the Belarusian economy, but also allowed numerous intermediaries to profit from them, said an official from the Energy Ministry. Interfax and RIA Novosti reported Moscow's position on Saturday, citing an anonymous source.
The same source provided a list of intermediaries supplying Russian oil to Belarusian refineries on a give-and-take basis. They include Interservice owned by Belarusian businessman Nikolai Vorobey; Univest-M run by "the former top managers of Slavneft" (as cited by RIA Novosti), and Vladimir Bryntsalov's MSP-Oil. They cannot do business without "strong ties with, and the sanction of, the Belarusian leadership," the source said.
"The issue has nothing to do with intermediaries," Dmitry Peskov said. "This is not so important for the Russian side, duty rates are the key issue for us."
Vedomosti has faiIed to contact the Belarusian government, Belneftekhim, and the companies named by the news agencies this weekend. Mr Bryntsalov, however, has never denied that oil refining is his business in Belarus.
MSP-Oil was bought 15 years ago, Mr Bryntsalov told Interfax in the spring of 2009, boasting "clear relations" with the country's leaders: "I have preferences for my experience," he said.
The issue of intermediaries comes to the surface in nearly all Russia's oil and gas disputes with its neighbours; current traders can be replaced with new ones or direct contacts may be established, said Denis Borisov of the Bank of Moscow.
See www.vedomosti.ru for the full version of this article.
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The price of benefits
With the current oil export duty at $267 per tonne, the Russian budget annually loses $1.7 billion from supplies of 6.3 million tonnes of duty-free oil to Belarus.
Yelena Mazneva, Maxim Tovkailo
