MOSCOW, January 3. /TASS/. Russia’s Transneft oil transporting company has received no requests from Russian oil companies for supplies to oil refineries in Belarus starting on January 1. Full-scale oil transit through that country continues, Transneft Spokesman Igor Dyomin told TASS.

"Transneft pumps oil in accordance with applications from oil companies. As of January 1, we have no applications from oil companies for deliveries to Belarusian refineries. At the same time, full-scale transit through Belarus goes on," he said.

Meanwhile, a source close to Belarusian oil refineries informed TASS that large stocks of crude oil (about 0.5 mln tonnes) had been created at the refineries. "That may be enough for about 20 days of work," he said.

Earlier on Friday, Belneftekhim Concern said that Russia had stopped oil supplies to Belarus, adding that the capacity of the country’s oil refineries had been reduced to the minimum technologically permissible level.

Russia’s oil companies have not commented on the issue yet.

On December 30 and December 31, 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko held two telephone conversations to discuss issues related to Russian oil and gas supplies to Belarus. The Belarusian leader also discussed the issue with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Energy Minister Alexander Novak on December 21. Shortly after that, Lukashenko instructed the top officials of the petrochemical complex to sign oil supplies contracts and explore the possibility of supplies from the Baltic ports by rail and through the Druzhba oil pipeline. He earlier said that Belarus planned to purchase about 20 bln cubic meters of gas and 24-25 mln tonnes of oil from Russia in 2020.