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Eastern Europe
April 19, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
Belarus threatens to suspend Russia's oil transit to Europe amid snowballing energy conflict with Moscow
Sergei Kuznetsov in Kyiv
Belarusian authoritarian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has ordered his government to suspend Russia's oil transit to Europe saying the pipelines running through his country to Europe are “in need of repairs.”
"If you need to repair pipelines running
through Belarus, do it," state news agency BELTA quoted Lukashenko as saying on April 11. "It seems that the good things we are doing for Russia turn into evil for us. Some people there have gone too far trying to twist our arms."
Russia’s state-owned gas monopolists said in
a statement on the same day that the pipelines were in “good repair” but offered to aid Minsk in any repairs the Belarusians deemed necessary.
The Belarusian statement appeared against
a background of Minsk's failure to secure any compensation from Russia for losses triggered by the latter’s new energy taxation system, which may lead to a new economic crisis in Belarus.
According to Lukashenko, 12-18 months ago Belarusian experts reported that both an oil pipeline and an oil product pipeline running through Belarus are in disrepair. "We needed to close those pipelines for a couple of days to repair them. But we did not do it. We understood that it would affect Russia. Back then I gave an instruction to work in an emergency mode without closing those pipelines meant for the transportation of oil, which is a major export product of the Russia."
The same day, the nation's Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko told reporters that time the necessary repairs require is up to the engineers and technical specialists in charge of the oil pipeline's maintenance to decide.
"Depending on what parts and components need maintenance. [...] Specialists should arrange consultations so that the oil pipeline would work without damaging the nature in our country
and all the contracted deliveries would be implemented," he said.
He added that the existing oil pipeline needs "additional routine maintenance" because it
has been in use for a long time. "Our engineers and technical specialists have made certain conclusions saying the pipeline was supposed to be shut down for scheduled repairs 1.5 years ago."
"Now, due to considerations relating to ecology and green economy we see that we cannot perform maintenance on this pipeline without either shutting off certain parts or limiting their use. Our specialists and engineers are working on it. This matter was also on the agenda," Petrishenko added.
Russian and Kazakhstan use the Belarusian part of the Druzhba (Friendship) oil pipeline for oil transit in Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Russia’s tax manoeuvre in the oil industry