OREANDA-NEWS. On June 23, 2009 the President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, held a meeting to discuss the situation with the import of oil and the selling of oil products. In the course of the meeting the President ordered the Government and the Presidential Administration to tackle by the end of Q3 2009 all the problems with the import and processing of oil in Belarus and to reconsider the list of oil suppliers, reported the press-centre of president.gov.by.

The situation in the Belarusian petrochemical industry is stable, with no emergency situations or breakdowns. Two Belarusian oil refineries operate at full capacity; the industry is supplied with the necessary raw materials. The national oil refineries fully meet the domestic needs and demand for oil products from the population, the agricultural sector and other industries.

The objective is not only to supply oil refineries with raw materials but also to cut material, labour, and financial costs, to prevent interruptions in oil supplies and make sure prices for fuels and lubricants do not rise in the domestic market.

According to the President, his recent meetings with foreign businessmen have shown that big projects are carried out more efficiently and economic issues addressed more effectively when businessmen and government officials work together. Attending the meeting were representatives of Belarus’ leading oil suppliers: Lukoil, Gazpromneft, Transneft, TNK-BP, among others.

According to Alexander Lukashenko, the main thing now is to identify the mutually beneficial ways to improve cooperation between businesses and the state, remove all the impediments and barriers, and make the cooperation as beneficial for all sides as possible.

In recent years much attention has been paid to modernisation of the Belarusian oil refining industry, said the President. A number of big overhaul projects have been carried out, and millions of dollars invested. Those investments are now paying off. The degree of oil refining has been made higher, which means that more products can be manufactured from every given tonne of oil. Today the quality of oil products meets high international standards.

Mutually beneficial oil supply schemes have been developed. To raise the sales of oil products in the international market, the Belarusian Oil Company has been established. However, according to the President, not all cost-saving opportunities have been taken advantage of so far in the areas ranging from the supply of raw materials to the selling of ready-made oil products.