Russia has increased gasoline imports from Belarus to cope with the risk of shortages in the domestic market due to drone attacks on refineries.
This is reported by Reuters.
According to them, Russia usually exports very small amounts of fuel from Belarus, but because of repeated attacks on its refineries, it has to resort to this measure. In order to cope with the deficit, Russia has banned the export of gasoline since March 1.
In the first half of March, imports of gasoline from Belarus reached almost 3 thousand tons, while in February – only 590 tons, while in January – there were no supplies, the agency writes with reference to sources familiar with the statistics.
In addition, according to two interlocutors, negotiations on further supplies are still ongoing between the governments and oil companies. One of the sources says that the negotiations are difficult, as Minsk prioritizes the export of fuel to international markets.
Reuters sources in the industry note that it is now unclear how significantly Minsk will be able to increase its capacity. At the same time, what volumes of oil products Russia will need depends on the timing of repairs to the refineries that were attacked by drones.
