Russia’s Transneft has started oil supplies to Belarusian refineries as directed by routing instructions, the spokesman of the Russian pipeline operator Igor Demin told reporters on Monday, according to Interfax.
“Supplies to Belarusian refineries are underway as directed by endorsed routing instructions,” he said.
Transneft’s representative said last week that four Russian oil companies started registering routing instructions on oil supplies to Belarusian refineries in April. He added that those were companies traditionally supplying oil to Belarusian refineries.
Rosneft informed last week that it had signed oil supply contracts with Belarusian refineries under the terms stated earlier — with the premium of $5 per tonne.
All in all, Russian companies have applied for oil supply to Belarus in April in the amount of around 1 million tons.
Deliveries were halted on January 1 as the sides failed to come to an agreement on the premium, which Belarus paid earlier to oil companies for receiving oil duty-free.
The sides only agreed to resume regular supplies by the end of March. Belarus will stop paying the premium overlay to Russian companies in April, and the issue will be settled through intergovernmental transfers, Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Rumas said earlier.
