The USA Is Ready for a 100% Oil Provision to Belarus

The United States is ready to provide 100% energy resources to Belarus at competitive prices, said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk.

“Our energy producers are ready to provide you 100% at competitive prices,” said Mr. Pompeo (BelTA cited).

Besides, according to Mr. Pompeo, a visit to Minsk brought countries closer to resolving the issue of lifting sanctions. At the same time, the United States is not ready to abandon restrictive measures. “We will consider what sanctions can be lifted. So far we have not reached this point. But such moments as today bring this goal closer,” the Secretary of State added.

At his turn, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said that Minsk would welcome a more active role for the United States. “We would welcome a more active role of the United States in Belarus through the lens of role and importance that the United States plays in the world arena ... We are interested in a more active development of cooperation between various government structures,” said Mr. Makei during briefing (Interfax quoted).

Recall that Belarus begun looking for new sources of oil supplies to its refineries after Belneftekhim (which controls Naftan) was unable to negotiate the price with Russian companies. Due to the lack of contracts, deliveries from Russia have stopped since the beginning of 2020. Later, Belarus was able to agree on oil purchase with a number of companies belonging to the Safmar group of Mikhail Gutseriev, but this volume is not enough. The head of Belneftekhim Andrei Rybakov said that negotiations with Russia are ongoing. As an alternative, a batch of Norwegian oil was purchased in January.