MOSCOW (MRC) -- Belarus' Naftan refinery started unloading first ever barrels of US crude, operator Belneftekhim spokesman Alexander Tishchenko was quoted as saying June 11 by the Belta news agency, said S&P Global.
Register Now "US oil has already begun flowing at Naftan. At noon, we started unloading oil tanks that arrived earlier this morning," Tishchenko said. The 77,000-mt (around 565,000-barrel) cargo of Bakken crude, arrived at the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda on June 5 and is being delivered by rail together with the remaining barrels of Saudi oil purchased by Belarus in late April.
The first delivery contained 17 tank cars of US crude, with the rest arriving at Naftan over the next 10 days, Tishchenko said. This shipment marks the 12th tanker of oil Belarus has purchased in 2020 as the country continues to seek alternative suppliers after a disagreement with Russia on crude supply terms. Belarus has already received similar volumes from Saudi Arabia, Norway, and Azerbaijan.
In total, Belarus has purchased over 1 million mt, or 7.33 million barrels, of oil from alternative suppliers since the beginning of the year. In May, Belarusian refineries also received 1.13 million mt, or 267,190 b/d, of oil from Russia.
The volume necessary for the optimal running of Belarusian refineries is 2 million mt.
As MRC informed earlier, at the Polymir plant, which is part of Naftan, on June 16, two workshops stopped due to a decrease in the supply voltage. As a result of the reduction in ethylene production, the technological process was partially stopped in workshop No. 105 (production of propylene) and in workshop No. 402 (production of polyacrylonitrile fiber). There are no injuries.
According to the ICIS-MRC Price Report, Polymir last Monday cut the prices of the 109 and 158 LDPE for shipments to the domestic market to Brb1,772,000-1,876,000/tonnes, excluding VAT, FCA, respectively, for volumes of more than 200 tonnes. Brb1,816,000-1,923,000/tonnes for smaller volumes of prices. rub. per ton, excluding VAT, FCA.
MRC