Belarus to ban exports of petrol and diesel fuel?

• 30.08.2013, 15:56

Belarus has decided to ban exports of light oil products.

The information comes from anonymous sources, onliner.by reports. The press service of Belneftekhim company says they “don't have this information yet”.

The decision cannot be called a planned one. Experts discussed lately how Belarusian and Russian fuel exporters would compete in the Ukrainian market. Bans on exports are usually imposed with the only aim to protect the domestic market facing the risk of deficit.

Taking into account that harvesting or sowing campaigns are not being carried out now, the ban may be explained either with 400,000 tonnes that will not be delivered to Belarus from Russia in September via the Druzhba pipeline due to untimely repair works, or with other, still unknown, reasons.

The explanation of a possible ban looks logical amid the latest development of the Russian-Belarusian relations that always affect economy in moments of tension.

It's curious to note that the current agreements with Russia provide both for the total volume of supplies of 18.5mn tonnes and the reverse deliveries of oil products of 2.1mn tonnes.