Kommersant: Belarus wants to raise tariffs for oil transit

The operator of the Belarusian section of the Druzhba oil pipeline, Gomeltransnafta Druzhba, has approached Transneft with a proposal to raise oil transit tariffs by 84% from July against the backdrop of a sharp decrease in pumping through the northern branch. About it writes “Kommersant” with reference to the letter of the Belarusian operator.

The company explained that Germany and Poland stopped importing Russian oil and began purchasing raw materials from Kazakhstan in much smaller volumes. As a result, in the first quarter, traffic through Druzhba fell 4.7 times, in the direction of Germany and Poland – 12.1 times year on year. At the end of 2023, the fall will be 45.9% compared to the indicators announced during the revision of rates.

The decrease in cargo turnover brought Gomeltransnafta Druzhba a loss of 329 million rubles. according to the results of the first quarter, for the first half of the year it may amount to 1.26 billion rubles. The increase in tariffs will ensure the break-even operation of the company in 2023, the letter says.

Igor Yushkov, an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, noted in a commentary to the publication that Minsk had two options after the fall in the pumping of Russian oil. The first is to raise the tariff several times only for the northern branch, and the second is to raise it on both branches, but not so much. In the first case, Kazakhstan may abandon pumping in favor of export by sea, and in the second, supplies become less attractive for consumers on the southern branch, who may start looking for alternatives.

In March, the pipeline operator Ukrtransnafta reported that it plans to increase the cost of transiting Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline through Ukraine to 27.2 euros per ton. As a result, the company agreed to increase to 17 euros from June 1, the newspaper notes.

Transneft confirmed receipt of the letter, but did not comment on its content.

The Druzhba pipeline was built in the 1960s. for the delivery of oil from the USSR to the countries of the socialist camp in Eastern Europe. It starts in the Samara region and passes through Bryansk, and then splits into two branches: northern and southern. The northern branch passes through Belarus to Poland, Germany and the Baltic countries, the southern branch passes through the territory of Ukraine to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.

The supply of Russian oil to Europe came under sanctions after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine, but the European Union made an exception for transit through the southern branch of the Friendship. An exception for the Czech Republic will be valid until the end of 2023, for Hungary and Slovakia no deadline has been set.