Baltic States – CIS, Belarus, Energy, Oil, Port, Transport

Although Russian Railways has offered Belarusian companies 50% discount on transport of mazut, diesel fuel and gasoline to ports in Russia's northwest until the end of 2018, the export routes offered by Russia, even with the discount, are no less expensive than the routes BNK uses at this time, said Grib.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week in Kaliningrad that Russian oil supplies to Belarusian oil refineries should depend on Belarusian oil refineries shipping their oil products by Russian railroad and through Russian ports at the Gulf of Finland.

Russian Railways' President Oleg Beloziorov added that Belarus had been offered substantial discounts on export of oil products via Russian ports, however, Belarusian refineries continue to export their oil products through the Baltic ports.

On the other hand, Grib explains that shipping oil products through the Russian northwestern ports may be problematic in the winter months, and Russian terminals have offered no guarantees that quality of Belarusian oil products would not suffer if they were transported through the Russian ports. All of this makes the economic advantages and viability of export routes offered by Russia questionable.

"Clients prefer to receive our products through the Baltic ports, as the logistic costs are lower," emphasized Grib.