Belarus raises tariff on Russian oil transit without Moscow's consent
Reuters
The tariff on the transit of Russian crude oil and oil products via the territory of Belarus will be raised by more than 6 percent effective from 1 February 2020, reports BELTA quoting Belarusian Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade Minister Uladzimir Kaltovic.
According to the minister, the talks with the Russian counterparts have produced no results. This is why the part of the instruction that specifies the procedure for raising oil transit tariffs comes into force, the official noted. The tariff needs to be raised by the average annual inflation specified by Russian Federation projections plus three percentage points. Mr. Kaltovic added that the sides have different opinions as to how the tariff is defined.
Back in 2019, Belarus wanted to raise the tariff by 16.6 percent in order to compensate losses from the supplies of 'contaminated Russian oil' in the Druzhba pipeline but Moscow blocked the move.
