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Belarus does not consider feasible to pay previous oil price premium to Russia

Russia is reluctant to reconsider the oil price premium so far, according to the Belarusian first deputy PM

MINSK, January 14. /TASS/. Belarus does not consider economically feasible to pay the premium to the oil price in the previous amount to Russian oil companies, First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Dmitry Krutoi said on Tuesday.

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Moscow, Minsk fail to agree on oil and petroleum products transit tariffs

"We maintain that there is no sense at present to pay the premium to the Russian oil companies in the amount we negotiated in 2011 in the conditions of the tax maneuver implementation and annual increase in oil price for Belarus on account of the customs duty reduction. This is simply unfeasible in economic terms," the official said, cited by BelTA news agency.

According to Krutoi, Russian partners so far are not meeting Belarus halfway in reconsideration of the oil price premium.

"So far, they [Russia — TASS] do not want to meet [Belarus] halfway in respect of the amount of this premium," Krutoi said, cited by BelTA news agency.

Only the company of Mikhail Gutseriev [co-owner of Safmar Group — TASS] has considered the request, the official informed. "The negotiating process is underway. We have sent our proposals to everyone. We believe it is very difficult to simply wave the Belarusian market aside: we are a major consumer of the Russian oil (about 10% of Russian exports)," he went on. "Negotiations will continue and I hope the solution will be found," Krutoi added.

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