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MOSCOW/MINSK - Belarus said today it had restarted the flow of Russian oil through a major pipeline across its territory, ending a three-day stoppage that rattled Europe.
The resumption came hours after Belarus scrapped an oil transit duty it imposed last week on shipments of crude through the
Druzhba ('Friendship') pipeline linking Russia's Siberian oilfields to central and eastern Europe.
"Belarus started transit shipments of crude at 11:35 p.m. Moscow time (2035 GMT)," Alexei Kostuchenko, general director of Belarussian pipeline operator Gomeltransneft Druzhba, told Reuters by telephone.
"We have told Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft that, according to the agreement reached earlier, the pumping of oil has started to Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary."
Claude Mandil, chief of the International Energy Agency that advises industrialised nations, said the disruption had shaken confidence in Russia as an energy supplier and affected countries in Europe were forced to tap their strategic reserves.
"The cut in oil supplies from Russia is unacceptable ... This raises a problem, a real problem of credibility. We would like to guarantee that this does not happen in the future," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.
Transneft said earlier it expected to resume normal operations on the Druzhba pipeline -- which supplies around a tenth of Europe's oil needs -- around eight hours after Belarus turned on the taps.
"I expect this to happen tomorrow," Transneft CEO Semyon Vainshtok told reporters.
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko reached an understanding to resolve the halt during a telephone call with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko's office said.
The shutdown marked the climax of a trade dispute in which Moscow doubled gas export prices to Belarus at the New Year and imposed a crippling crude oil export duty equivalent to 10 per cent of the gross domestic product of its western neighbour.
Minsk retaliated last week by imposing its own oil transit duty. Transneft shut off the oil flow on Sunday night, accusing Belarus of siphoning 80,000 tonnes of oil from the pipeline to take payment of the levy in kind.
Minsk caved into pressure from Moscow after Putin said on Wednesday Russian oil firms should prepare to cut production if no compromise was reached, threatening prolonged supply cuts to Europe just a year after a Russia-Ukraine gas crisis.
Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko met oil bosses on Wednesday night and today to discuss reductions. But further discussions were called off when Belarussian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky said that Minsk had withdrawn the transit duty.
"If oil pumping restarts before the end of the day ... the issue of (Russian) oil production cuts will be off the agenda," Russian Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Sharonov said earlier.
Sidorsky flies to Moscow tomorrow and he said he expected the Russian side to respond by lifting trade restrictions it has imposed on Belarus.
EU leaders said the stoppage of 1.5 million barrels per day of oil flows made it harder to trust Russia as a supplier and berated both states for failing to consult key customers like Germany before turning off the taps.
Many analysts say the short-lived oil transit tax, which triggered the Druzhba closure, was Minsk's reaction to the December gas agreement in which Russian gas monopoly Gazprom also bought a half-share in Belarus' gas pipeline network.
"The disruption in oil supplies has yet again undermined Russia's efforts to establish itself as a reliable source of supplies to Europe," said Yaroslav Lissovolik from Deutsche UFG.
- REUTERS
