OREANDA-NEWS. On November 1, 2008, Belarus reduces the crude oil export duty from US372.2 per tonne to US 287.3 per tonne. The Council of Ministers issued relevant resolution No 1668, reported the Official website www.government.by.

The oil export duty has been revised downward following a similar reduction in the export oil duty in the Russian Federation effective from November 1. The export duty on oil products will be reduced to the level of the duties valid in Russia.

For example, duties on light oil products (light and middle distillates, liquefied gas, benzol, toluene and xylol) will be reduced from US 263.1 to US 205.9 per tonne. Duties on heavy petroleum products (engine oil, processed oil products, mineral wax, oil coke, oil asphalt) will be cut from US 141.7 to US 110.9 per tonne.

In line with the intergovernmental Belarusian-Russian agreement, export duties on oil and oil products in Belarus are equal to the duties applied in Russia and are introduced on the same date.

In conformance with the Belarusian-Russian agreement, in 2008 the coefficient of 0,335 will be used for calculating the duty on oil supplied to Belarus from Russia. From November 1 the duty for Belarus makes up US 96.2 per tonne.