Ukraine seeks guarantees from Belarus over Venezuelan oil supplies

In order to say a final "yes" to the Venezuelan oil, Ukraine would like to get certain guarantees from Belarus. Firstly, it needs stable supplies (approximately 10 million tons annually in the mid-term perspective), stable payments for transportation and a high quality of oil.

Belarus and Ukraine are currently in talks over two options of how to supply the Venezuelan oil to refineries in Belarus -- through the largest Black Sea ports in Odessa and the Sothern port. The ports are naturally state-owned, but the port logistics are in private hands. Both the ports' logistics are owned by Ukrainian billionaire Igor Kalomoysky whose business interests are represented in the most profitable sectors of the Ukrainain economy like finances, petrochemical industry, mining, media and even football.

Thanks to political ties with former PM Yulia Tymoshenko, Igor Kalomoysky's management was in great demand by the government, including on the board of directors at Naftogaz Ukrainy, sea ports, etc. But managers have changed with a nee government…   

Naturally, shipping oil through the Souther port would be the least costly to Belarus, because would later be pumped through the Odessa-Brody pipeline to the refinery in Mozyr. The European Radio for Belarus has learned that in respond to such a proposal, Ukrtransnafta reminded the Belarusian side that the Odessa-Brody pipeline is currently used in the reverse mode in order to ship Russian crude Urals towards the Southern port not otherwise.  

At the same time, Ukraine stressed that despite the technical possibilities of using the pipeline in the opposite direction, " it is necessary to reconstruct connection points for pumping station on the leg from Mozyr to Brody-1". Ukraine assured the works could be complete within 45 days and would require $200,000. However, it is unclear who would fund such a reconstruction.

Perhaps, that's why Ukraine is seeking guarantees. If Belarus does not confirm an increase in the volumes of the shipped Venezuelan oil to 10 million tons per yer, Ukraine will not consider this option of pumping oil to Belarus. Belarus is reportedly to purchase up to 4 million tons of Santa Barbara crude brand by April 2011. 



Photo: smnpk.ru