Russia to boost oil exports to Belarus in 2013December 29, 2012 - 13:45 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia has agreed with Belarus to increase its oil exports in the first quarter of 2013 by 8.6 percent, Igor Dyomin, a spokesman for Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, said on Saturday, December 20, according to RIA Novosti. “We have received official changes to the export schedule. Deliveries of oil to Belarus in the first quarter of 2013 will increase from the 4.625 million tons planned earlier to 5.025 million tons,” Dyomin said. Talks on oil deliveries for full-year 2013 are still in progress, he said. The agreement to increase crude deliveries follows resolution of the so-called solvents problem, in which Moscow accused Minsk of failing to transfer to Russia $1.5 billion in customs duties that Belarus collected on oil product exports. Russia had repeatedly expressed concern about Belarus exporting oil products to Europe under the guise of solvents and thinners to avoid transfer of duties to the Russian budget. Moscow had said the volume of crude supplied to Belarus next year would be tied to resolution of the issue. Last week Belarus agreed to make amendments to the Code of the Customs Union between the ex-Soviet republics of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan that would put an end to the practice of duty-free “solvents” export. According to Belarus’ Statistical Agency Belstat, Belarus exported 244,000 tons of “solvents” in 2010, a figure that rose to 2.1 million tons in 2011 and to 2.9 million tons in the first half of 2012. Latvia was the main buyer, importing 1.5 million tons. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |