Putin orders government to consider cutting oil output amid row with Belarus

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday ordered the government to consider a cut in the country's oil production amid a trade dispute over oil with its neighbor Belarus.

Russia and Belarus have been at loggerheads over the transit of Russian crude oil through Belarus to western Europe. Transit shipments along the Druzhba pipeline were halted over the weekend, affecting Poland and Germany to Hungary.

Putin instructed the government "to discuss with Russian companies the possibility of reducing oil production in connection with the problems emerging in the transportation of oil via Belarus," the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Russia provides about a quarter of the oil and gas consumed in the European Union, some of which is piped through Belarus, mainly to Poland, Germany and Lithuania.

"Everything necessary should be done to secure the interests of Western consumers" of Russian oil, Putin was quoted as saying at a cabinet meeting.

He also asked the government to work out measures to protect the national economy, saying the measures "must encompass all aspects of our relations with partners, in this particular case, with Belarussian partners."

At the start of the year, Moscow imposed export duties on crude oil supplied to Belarus. Minsk then slapped a new customs duty on Russian oil piped through Belarus, which Russia rejected.

Source: Xinhua