The Russian Ministry of Transport is ready to sign an agreement with Minsk on the transshipment of Belarusian oil products in the ports of the Russian Federation. This was announced on Sunday, February 14, by the head of the department, Vitaly Savelyev.
“We have now reached an agreement with our Belarusian colleagues and held a meeting. Now there will be cargoes from Belarus, oil products, from the Baltic ports to the Russian port of Ust-Luga. We are ready to sign with the Belarusian side, <...> now we are awaiting readiness from Belarus, “he said on the air of the Russia-24 TV channel.
On February 12, it became known that due to procedural issues, Belarus postponed the signing of the corresponding agreement with Russia. At the same time, Minsk stressed that they are ready to sign the document, but this will become possible only after February 15 – it was on this day that the conclusion of the agreement was originally scheduled.
The draft agreement envisages the transshipment of over 9.8 million tons of cargoes such as gasoline, fuel oil and oil by Belarusian enterprises in Russian ports in the Baltic in 2021–2023.
The agreement is valid until the end of 2023 with the possibility of extension. Operators of the seaport terminals of the Leningrad Region and St. Petersburg have confirmed their readiness to transship these oil products and provide discounts subject to the conclusion of long-term contracts based on the planned volume of oil products.
Also Minsk and Moscow were supposed to sign an agreement on cooperation in the field of transport security.
The document will make it possible to form a unified mechanism of interaction between states, ensuring the timely detection, prevention and suppression of acts of unlawful interference in the activities of the transport complex.