MINSK (Sputnik) — On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after the negotiations with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko that the two leaders had agreed to settle all the existing disputes in the oil-and-gas sector. Later in the day, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia would resume regular oil supplies to Belarus.
"Oil supplies to Belarus will be renewed in the volumes that are prescribed by the current agreement, that is 24 million tonnes per year. These volumes should be supplied from this year up to and including 2024," Semashko told the Belarus 1 broadcaster.
The broadcaster's anchorwoman claimed that Moscow had cleared Minsk of an obligation to supply 1 million metric tons of oil products to Russia as a condition for duty-free supplies of Russian oil.
"The cancellation of these supplies will allow Belarus to earn an additional $150 million a year," she said, estimating the economic effect from the gas compromise at $2 billion over the next three years.
Moscow-Minsk relations in the gas and oil sphere have been complicated as of late, while several disagreements resulted in the aggravation of bilateral political relations and obstruction of Russian oil transit to the European Union.
In March, the Russian and Belarusian prime ministers discussed the dispute. However, according to Novak, Minsk refused to repay its $700-million debt without receiving substantial preferences.
