Russia has increased its imports of gasoline from Belarus as its domestic supply has dwindled

Russia increased its gasoline imports from neighboring Belarus in March in response to the risk of a domestic supply shortfall due to unscheduled repair work at Russian refineries following Ukrainian drone attacks, the agency was told. Reuters several sources from the oil industry, Agerpres cites.

Russia is usually a net exporter of fuel and a supplier to international markets, but the disruption to refinery activities has forced Russian oil companies to resort to imports. Already, the authorities in Moscow have banned gasoline exports, since March 1, in order to ensure the supply of the domestic market after repeated drone attacks by the Ukrainians since the beginning of the year.

Russia normally imports very small amounts of fuel from Belarus, but the situation changed in August-October last year, when it faced a fuel supply shortfall, which led to a rapid rise in petrol prices and required the introduction of a new embargo on oil product exports.

Sources cited by Reuters claim that this year, Russia has again increased its imports of gasoline from Belarus, and in the first half of March these imports reached 3,000 tons. Comparatively, in February Russia imported 590 tons of gasoline from Belarus, and in January there were no deliveries from Belarus.

Belarus has two refineries, Naftan and Mozyr. Each of these refineries has a processing capacity of 12 million tonnes per year (about 240,000 barrels per day) but normally operates at a lower capacity of about 9 million tonnes per year (180,000 barrels per day). .

Belarusian refineries mainly use Russian crude oil as feedstock, while Russian oil companies, which also have subsidiaries in Belarus, buy gasoline from the Naftan and Mozyr refineries to supply their Belarusian gas stations.

Sources cited by Reuters, who wished to remain anonymous, revealed that discussions are currently taking place between the governments and oil companies of the two countries regarding new gasoline imports. One of the sources stated that the discussions are made difficult by the fact that Belarus prioritizes fuel exports on international markets. On the other hand, how much gasoline Russia needs depends on how long the repair works at the refineries will take.