Oil shipments via the pipeline and, consequently, Belarus' oil product output fell by 26 percent. As a result of this, Litasco, the main exporter of Belarusian oil products, exported fewer products via Klaipėda, Rokas Masiulis said.
"Yes, formally, Litasco is not meeting its contractual obligations. It was to ship 180,000 tons of oil products in November, but it actually shipped over 100,000 tons. But what is bad is that the supply of oil to Belarus has been reduced," he told BNS.
Another reason behind the decline in loadings via the terminal in October and November was that Belarus' Mozyr crude refinery was shut down for maintenance in October. However, the proportions of oil product shipments by rail to the port of Klaipėda were unchanged from the fourth quarter of last year, the CEO said.
Klaipėdos Nafta reloaded 6.207 million tons of oil products during the eleven months through November, down by 13.6 percent from 7.183 million tons a year earlier. In November, reloadings declined by 15 percent year-on-year to 615,000 tons.
Russia cut oil supplies to Belarus by 26 percent, or by around 4 million tons, in the fourth quarter.
Under its contract with Klaipėdos Nafta, Litasco, a Swiss-registered company that is part of the Russian oil group Lukoil, is to ship about 2 million tons of oil products annually by rail starting in October 2012.
