A Belarusian delegation today arrived in Moscow to hold talks on a trade dispute that has led to a suspension of Russian oil supplies to Europe via Belarus, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Belarusian vice-Premier Andrei Kobyakov will meet Russian officials to find a solution to the transit of oil through Belarus, the Belarusian embassy in Moscow was quoted as saying.
An oil refinery located on a branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline southeast of Minsk January today.
Russia yesterday stopped pumping oil to Europe via the Druzhba, or Friendship, pipeline that crosses Belarus, after accusing its neighbour of siphoning off oil.
The pipeline carries oil to Germany, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The European Union called for the oil deliveries to be resumed "as quickly as possible".
EU energy chief Andris Piebalgs yesterday said the situation posed no immediate risk to energy supplies in the European Union, where refineries maintain strategic oil stocks.
The International Energy Agency said today that European oil markets would cope with the halt to Russian oil exports via Belarus which has shut down supplies to Poland and Germany.
"There is apparently no immediate impact to any of the refineries in the countries involved, as they all have working stocks of several days. So there is no threat that product supplies to the end users will be disrupted," the IEA said in a statement.
"Should disruption from the Druzhba pipeline prove more prolonged, each of the refineries could source crude supplies from alternative routes and some of them are already organising alternative supplies, be it through ports at the Baltic Sea or through pipelines coming from other sources".
Agencies