EU urges Russia, Belarus to ensure disruption-free oil supply

The European Union (EU) sent a letter to Russian and Belarussian authorities on Thursday, urging them to guarantee disruption-free oil supply to the EU and due fulfillment of contracts in the future.

In the letter addressed to Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref and Belarussian Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov, the EU encouraged both parties to use the Energy Charter Treaty and WTO principles for finding a solution to any crisis similar to what happened in the past few days.

It also called on the two countries to avoid any unilateral actions that might affect the EU consumers of hydrocarbon products in the future.

In the letter, EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and German economy secretary of state Joachim Wuermeling, whose country holds the EU presidency, welcomed the fact that oil deliveries have been resumed Thursday despite the lack of a final settlement of the oil transit fees dispute between the two countries.

The letter underlined that the EU has taken the oil disruptions very seriously, and recalled the necessity for some EU states to provide for alternative deliveries or to draw on their emergency stocks which represents a significant financial burden.

Crude oil deliveries from Russia to the EU via Belarus through the Druzhba pipeline was cut on Jan. 7 due to a dispute between the two countries, which affected Germany, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Source: Xinhua