President of Belarus, Lukashenko has stressed the importance of replacing supplies of Russian oil with other fuels.
“There is no disaster, but the reduction of oil supplies from the Russian Federation should be replaced by alternatives”, – quotes Agency “BelTA”.
Lukashenko reminded that these issues were raised at the end of last year, and some alternative options were even implemented.
“We have some tried, tested already in practice, bringing oil from the Black sea and the Mediterranean to our refineries, to practice to see how it will look economically,” – said the Belarusian President.
He asked the Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko to report how things are going in the oil and gas sector, and how the government is going to continue to ensure the supply of fuel.
In 2016, Belarus bought 85 000 tonnes of oil in Azerbaijan. The fuel has been delivered to the country via a Ukrainian port. During the talks with Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev, Lukashenko expressed the desire to continue and develop cooperation in the oil sector.
Another alternative for the purchase of oil Belarusian government has named is Iran. However, this idea was criticized be the specialists because Belarus is far away and does not have access to the sea, which greatly increases the transport costs.