OREANDA-NEWS. January 15, 2010. Companies in Russia, while Moscow is engaged in a dispute with Minsk, could suspend Thursday raw material supplies to the Mozyr Oil Refinery, one of the two crude refineries in the Republic of Belarus, press secretary of Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft Igor Demin said.

The Belarusian refiner’s major suppliers are Russia’s Rosneft, Lukoil, TNK-BP and Gazprombank, each of them, in line with the supply schedule, should deliver around 500,000 tons of crude to the refinery in 1Q 2010. Russia and Belarus have not yet agreed on the terms of oil deliveries in 2010.

Belarus is eager to retain its previous oil concessions whereby it paid 35.6% of the Russian oil export tariff. Russia agrees to ship around 6 mn tons to Belarus for domestic needs on a duty-free basis, but insists on full payment for the remaining 14.5 mn tons which are exported after being refined in Belarus.