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Minsk hopes for $70mln compensation after dirty oil incident - Belarusian diplomat

According to Vladimir Semashko, Belneftekhim CEO is to come to Moscow "with clearly-worded legal documents and file these claims"

MINSK, December 9. /TASS/. Belarus hopes to receive a sum of about 70 million US dollars as compensation after the incident with contaminated oil, Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Vladimir Semashko said on Sunday commenting on the results of the talks between the two countries’ leaders in Sochi.

"The sum at question is quite big - about 70 million US dollars," BelTA news agency quoted him as saying. According to the Belarusian diplomat, the problem of compensation was raised at the leaders’ talks.

"I thought that on December 6 [at the prime ministers’ meeting] a solution to this matter was found. The Russian prime minister agreed that it should be like in the case with Hungary MOL and Russia’s Transneft, i.e. a compensation of 15 US dollars for each barrel of dirty oil," Semashko said. "It would be acceptable for us. But it sounded quite different on Saturday."

He said that the problem, to his minds, was quite resolvable. "The thing is that Belneftekhim should be more exact and substantive in its relations with our oil refineries. It is necessary to lodge an official claim, with clear and understandable wordings, as required by law," he said. "Approaches may differ but if Hungary or Poland or Germany has made it we should do it this way as well."

According to the Belarusian diplomat, Belneftekhim CEO is to come to Moscow "with clearly-worded legal documents and file these claims."

Belarus’ concern Belneftekhim on April 19 reported a dramatic deterioration of the quality of oil coming from Russia via the Druzhba oil pipeline that is used to supply oil to Belarusian oil refineries and to transit oil to Europe via Belarus, Poland and Ukraine. Transit and refinery were stopped to be resumed some time later. Belarus’s two oil refineries, Mozyrsky plant and Naftan, sustained serious losses. Russian and Belarus set up a working group to assess the losses.

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