Russian-Belarusian energy dispute

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Pipelines in Eastern Europe

The Russian-Belarusian energy dispute is the conflict between Belarus (Belarus) and Russia over the sale and transit of Russian energy sources. It concerns the partial sale of the operator of the Belarusian pipeline network Beltransgaz to Gazprom and the price for Russian natural gas . At the beginning of January 2007, another conflict arose over the transit of Russian oil to Western Europe , which escalated into a multi-day stop in oil transport via Belarus. Germany, along with other European countries, is indirectly affected by this dispute, as around 20% of the imported oil flows through Belarus. A year earlier there was a gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine .

Energy policy: conflict over natural gas

In April 2002, Russia and Belarus had agreed to deliver Russian gas at Russian domestic prices. The condition was the formation of a joint venture between the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom and the operator of the Belarusian natural gas network Beltransgaz. Gazprom should buy 50 percent of Beltransgaz. However, there was no agreement on the purchase price. Belarus demanded $ 2.5 billion from Gazprom as well as a gas price of $ 75, of which $ 45 will be financed in monetary terms and $ 30 through share transfers over several years. Gazprom's offer initially amounted to $ 200 for the gas and $ 700 million to $ 1 billion for the 50 percent package to the Belarusian natural gas supplier. When no agreement was reached, Gazprom cut its gas deliveries sharply. On February 18, 2004, Gazprom completely stopped deliveries and accused Belarus of illegally extracting gas destined for Western Europe. After ten hours, the gas was turned on again, but serious concerns arose in the EU. In order not to jeopardize its reputation as a reliable trading partner, Russia reached a compromise. The price of natural gas was increased slightly, as were the transit tariffs Beltransgaz received for using its pipeline network. With the participation in Beltransgaz Russia got no further.

In 2006 the price at which Gazprom had supplied natural gas to Belarus was US $ 46 per 1,000 m³. It was a heavily reduced price, which was about 1/6 of the usual price in Western Europe. During the year Gazprom announced that it would triple the price for Belarus in 2007. The group justified this with the need for market-based business relationships. The Belarusian President Aljaksandr Lukashenka refused to the end to agree to an increase and threatened to siphon the gas from the pipelines running through Belarus to Western Europe if necessary. His demand was that prices for Belarus should be at the level of Russia 's Smolensk Oblast , which he said is a prerequisite for further integration of the two countries. In recent years, however, he had slowed down this integration for fear of losing personal power.

On December 31, 2006, minutes before the old supply contract expired, both sides reached the following agreement:

  • Belarus buys Russian natural gas in 2007 for $ 100 for 1,000 cubic meters of gas.
  • Gazprom will buy Belarusian shares for the maximum price, i.e. H. for 2.5 billion.
  • A gradual increase in prices compared to the Western European price level will take place until 2011.
  • Russia pays Belarus a 70 percent higher transit fee: US $ 1.45 for 1,000 cubic meters of gas.
  • Gazprom will receive 50 percent of Beltransgaz's shares for $ 2.5 billion, payable in four annual installments.

There was a dispute between Ukraine and Russia in the (particularly cold) winter of 2009/2010: Ukraine did not want to accept massive price increases for Russian gas. Russia cut gas deliveries so severely and for so long that there were also supply bottlenecks in countries of the European Union. In 2010, Russia granted Ukraine a significant discount on gas deliveries - in return, the Russian fleet is allowed to cruise in the Black Sea for longer.

In 2010 the disputes between Russia and Belarus escalated again: on June 23, 2010, Russia further reduced its deliveries to Belarus (by 60%: only 18 million cubic meters of gas a day instead of 45, explained Gazprom boss Alexei Miller). Minsk is making no move to pay the required debts of 156 million euros. Belarus accuses Gazprom of failing to pay EUR 211.7 million in transit fees.

Russia initially refused to offset the two sums.

Energy policy: conflict over oil

background

In the mid-1990s, both states agreed within the framework of a bilateral customs union that Russia would not impose any export tariffs on its crude oil exported to Belarus and that, in return, the export tariffs that Belarus would levy on oil products made from it and further exported would be divided between the two countries. In 1995 it was originally agreed that Belarus would transfer 85 percent of the duty it levies on exports to third countries to Russia as compensation for duty-free imports from Russia. However, Belarus unilaterally terminated this agreement in 2001 and kept the customs revenue entirely to itself. Belarus subsequently avoided consultations on this simmering problem. Belarus earned particularly strong earnings from the world market prices, which have risen sharply in recent years. In just four years, its profit margin had almost tripled.

In May 2006, Putin signed a decree on trade, economic, financial and credit policy towards Belarus. Any direct or indirect subsidization of the Belarusian economy should be stopped. When Belarus continued to refuse to implement the bilateral customs union agreements, Russia imposed an export tariff of $ 180.7 per ton on its crude oil.

Introduction of the transit tariff

Due to the dissatisfaction with the concluded gas contract and in response to the Russian export tariff that came into force in January 2007 , Belarus announced on January 4 that , in addition to the transit fees, a transit tariff of 45 US dollars per tonne of oil would be levied retroactively from January 1 the Belarusian territory happened. Russia refused to accept this customs fee on the grounds that it was against global practice and against Belarus law. According to global practice, only goods that are produced or consumed in a country are subject to customs duties.

Blockage of the pipeline

On January 8, the head of the Russian pipeline operator , Semjon Wainstock , announced that Belarusian illegal extraction of 79,000 tons of oil had been detected. The Belarusian company Belneftechim had tapped the Družba pipeline and extracted oil destined for Western Europe. The Lukashenka government motivated this with compensation for the now “illegal” Russian transit, for which Russia refused to pay the newly introduced transit tariff. At first it remained unclear whether the delivery stop that occurred on the same day was initiated by the Russian or the Belarusian side. The following day, the Transneft leadership announced that they had completely stopped oil shipments. She justified this with the senselessness of transit as long as the Belarusians take a large part of the oil. Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic no longer received any oil through this pipeline.

The delivery freeze did not cause any immediate bottlenecks in Western Europe, but it was criticized by the EU as "unacceptable".

Resolution of the dispute

After a phone call between Aljaksandr Lukashenka and Vladimir Putin, the Belarusian side announced on January 10th that it was withdrawing the controversial transit tariff for Russian oil to Europe. In doing so, she complied with Moscow's demand that the abolition of the transit fee was a condition for starting negotiations. The relenting came after the Russian announcement that the customs union would be completely abolished and the previous customs exemption for numerous Belarusian goods exported to Russia ended. These make up about 50% of the total export volume from Belarus. Belarus also endeavored to feed 79,000 tons of extracted oil back into the pipeline. As a result, Russia resumed deliveries of the oil through the Družba pipeline.

In the negotiations that followed, the Belarusian side wanted Moscow to return to its special treatment of Belarus through export duty-free oil deliveries. In return, Belarus wants to really pursue old agreements on the distribution of its oil product tariffs to Europe.

On January 12, the Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and his Belarusian colleague Sergei Sidorsky agreed on a compromise. Russia imposes an export duty on those crude oil deliveries to Belarus, which are processed there and then re-exported as oil products. The amount of the export duty is based on a certain offsetting scheme based on the tariff income of Belarus when exporting these oil products.

Russia's continued support

On January 15, Vladimir Putin underlined in a government meeting that Russia would continue to support Belarus, albeit to a diminishing extent. In 2007 alone, Russian support through reduced gas prices will still amount to 3.3 billion US dollars and for oil a total of 2.5 billion US dollars. That makes a total of 5.8 billion US dollars, which corresponds to around 41% of the Belarusian state budget. However, this information only takes into account Russian concessions on prices and tariffs and does not include the lost tax revenue due to corporate migration to privileged Belarus.

In 2006, subsidies to Belarus amounted to around 7 billion dollars.

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  1. ↑ Russia cheaper gas for Ukraine. Zeit Online, April 21, 2010, accessed November 1, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Russian gas is flowing back into Belarus. Spiegel Online, June 24, 2010, accessed November 1, 2012 .
  3. ↑ Pipeline monopoly stops oil exports. Focus Money Online, January 9, 2007; accessed November 1, 2012 .
  4. ^ First, oil should flow back to Moscow , Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , January 11, 2007
  5. ↑ Путин: РФ продолжит оказывать поддержку Белоруссии , Vz.Ru , January 15, 2007
  6. ↑ A man who made world politics at the push of a button , Spiegel Online , January 15, 2007.