MOSCOW, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Belarus and Russia have reached a compromise on a dispute that disrupted the flow of Russian oil to some European countries, the Belarussian president said on Wednesday.
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "came to a compromise, which would help settle all the problems including those connected with Russian oil transit to European states via Belarus", after talking on the telephone, news agency BelTA reported, citing the presidential press service.
The Kremlin issued a terse statement on the two leaders' telephone talks without mentioning the compromise.
Moscow and Minsk have been at loggerheads over the transit of Russian crude oil through Belarus to Europe. Transit shipments along the Druzhba pipeline were halted over the weekend, affecting Poland, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
A day earlier, Putin ordered the government to consider cutting the country's oil production but to continue talks with Belarus. Talks in Moscow on Tuesday ended without an agreement.
At the start of the year, Moscow imposed export duties on crude oil supplied to Belarus. Minsk then slapped a new customs duty on Russian oil transiting through Belarus, which Russia rejected.
Related:
Russia seeking alternative routes amid
row with Belarus
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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a
meeting with government ministers in Moscow's Kremlin. (Xinhua/AFP
Photo)
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MOSCOW, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- President Vladimir Putin
ordered the government on Tuesday to consider cutting the country's oil
production amid a trade dispute over oil with Belarus, and a government minister
said Russia is seeking alternative routes for its crude exports to Europe that
bypass the eastern neighbor.
Belarus halts Russian oil flow to
Europe
MOSCOW, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Transit shipments of Russian
oil supplies to Poland, Germany and Ukraine through Belarus were stopped over
the weekend, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday, but the European Union
(EU) said the bloc faced "no immediate risk" of energy shortage.
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An oil refinery in Plock, Poland, is seen in this
undated handout photo. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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Azerbaijan halts oil exports to Europe via Russian
pipeline
MOSCOW, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Azerbaijani oil supplies
via Russia to Europe have been halted for more than a week in an energy price
row with Russia, Azerbaijan's state-owned oil company SOCAR said on Monday.
The dispute flared up after Russian state gas firm
Gazprom increased the cost of its gas exports to Azerbaijan to 235 U.S. dollars
per 1,000 cubic meters from last year's price of 110 dollars.
Energy supplies should not be used to threaten
Belarus
MOSCOW, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Belarussian President Alexander
Lukashenko said on Sunday that energy supplies should not be used as a means to
threaten his country, reports from Minsk said.
Although Belarus does not produce petroleum and
natural gas, other countries should not use energy supplies to threaten the
Belarussian people, Lukashenko told a religious gathering in the capital. Full Story>>
EU says "no immediate risk" for oil supplies despite
Belarus-Russia row
BRUSSELS, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU)
said on Monday that the disruption of oil supplies from Russia to the EU through
Belarus posed "no immediate risk" to energy supplies in the bloc.
EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs was in close
contact with Polish, German, Slovak and other European authorities to evaluate
the impact following an interruption of oil supplies from a pipeline running
through Belarus to Poland and Western Europe, Piebalgs' spokesman Ferran
Tarradellas Espuny said. Full Story>>
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