Russia, Belarus agree oil supply terms for 2021

Moscow and Minsk have agreed on the terms of Russian oil deliveries for 2021, four industry sources told Reuters on Friday, averting potential risks of supply disruption, as had been the case in previous years.

The absence of a deal for 2021 had raised fears over Russian oil supplies to Europe over the holiday period, as Belarus is a key transit route for Moscow’s exports to western markets.

An industry source said oil supplies have also been agreed upon.

Russia, which generally supplies Belarus with an average of 24 million tonnes of oil per year, or 480,000 barrels per day (bpd), suspended oil shipments to Belarus from January 1, 2020, for a few months, after disagreeing on a new price with Minsk.

Belarus had imported discounted oil from Moscow for years, reselling some of it and oil products processed from the Russian barrels on to Europe until Moscow decided to stop the practice.

Traders have said that Russian oil suppliers, including Rosneft and Belneftekhim, the Belarus state oil company, held several rounds of talks in the autumn about the terms of supplies.