06/05/2010
Venezuelan oil arrives in Belarus for the first time

Caracas, May 04. ABN.- About 1,300 cistern-wagons will be needed to transport the first oil shipment sent by Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and bought by the Belorussian company Belarusneft. The load will be moved from the port of Odessa, Ukraine, to the closest refinery in Belarus: Mozyr.

This is the first time in the history of this country of Western Europe, located between Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Baltic countries, that an oil shipment arrives from Venezuela.

For more than 90 years, the Belorussian industry depends on Russian energy suppliers of coal, natural gas or petroleum.

When Belarus belonged to the Soviet Union, the Russian gas and oil, as well as from other Soviet republics, contributed to develop the great industrial potential of Belarus to produce machinery, vehicles, tanks, aircrafts, steel pipelines, and thousand of products that were vital for the economy of the second world power.

Once the USRR falls in 1991, the old Belarus became the Independent Republic of Belarus; therefore, it had to purchase the oil and gas to the price negotiated “between brothers,” which was then increased in a compulsive way by the big hydrocarbon Russian companies. These companies even “closed the valves” on January 1, 2008, as a way to put pressure to impose new prices.

Venezuela comes to stage

In 2006, President Chavez visits Minsk to open the path for a new strategic relation with Western Europe, which has become essential.

For both, Belarus and Venezuela, this relation has reached the dimensions other countries would like to have for their bilateral relations with decades of diplomatic, political and economic links.

Belarus produces enough food to supply its domestic demand and exports a large amount to Russia and other countries. Venezuela among them, which purchases powder milk.

However, Belarus' main potential is within the industry, selling a large gamma of industrial machinery to about 80 countries, from common trucks and modern buses to the giant rocker trucks used for open-sky mines with a load capacity over 300 tons.

Venezuela and Belarus have “discovered” each other in three years and a half of diplomatic and commercial relations.

The current world capitalist crisis, which has triggered unemployment alarms in the United States and European Union, shutting down thousands of companies and dozens of banks, found in the bilateral relations between Belarus and Venezuela an escape-valve, because Belarus has not shut down a single company and Venezuela has not been blocked by the United States to acquire agrifood equipment.

As a complement for the diversification of its vital energy supplier, Belarus is purchasing oil from Venezuela, challenging all the pessimistic people that laughed at the idea of bringing oil from that far, to a port outside Belarus, because this country does not have ocean, to complete the journey by train or through “foreign” pipelines.

The first train arrived in Mozyr

There is a party environment in Belarus: the first shipment of light oil “Santa Barbara” is already being processed to sell its derivatives to Belarusneft's clients.

The “miracle” has brought the attention of the entire mass media, even of those that laughed at the crazy idea of bringing oil from Venezuela.

At least we know now that we, Venezuelans, are not the clowns. Neither Belorussians that trusted in Venezuela.

That train will not stop the entire May of 2010. Trip after trip, while other trains load the precious black gold in non-stopping shifts. It must supply the refinery that processes the Earth's honey that comes from the far Venezuela.

The oil tanker “Estrella de Mar” should be on its way back home, after downloading millions of tons in Odessa, Ukraine, a country that is now also interested in Venezuela oil. not only to guarantee the oil transportation to Belarus, but to make business with the oil refined in its neighbor country.

The trade balance will improve

As expected, the trade balance between Venezuela and Belarus is more balanced after the sell of this oil shipment that could reach 11 billion tons by 2011, as the President Alexander Lukashenko told media.

In a recent speech before the Parliament of Belarus, Lukashenko put emphasis on the cooperation with Venezuela. In reference to his recent visit to the South American country, he said: “I had to go to Venezuela to look for a secure energy alternative for Belarus.”

Afterwards, he requested a rigorous recovery from the sales of the derivative products of that oil “to the last penny,” and that money should remain all inside Belarus.

Likewise, the Prime Minister Serguey Sidorsky stated: “This is not a game. This is a serious business.”

We could improve even more the trade balance in our favor if we organize the production of cacao, coffee, rice, and fruits, among others, to be able to export them in a sustained way to our commercial partners, as Belarus: a friendly, peaceful and working country from which we have a lot of positive things to learn.

The historic event with the arrival of Venezuelan oil to Belarus and the announcement of new deliveries made high Belorussian staff had to travel to its closest neighbors: Ukraine and Lithuania.

Their main goal consisted on guaranteeing the logistic and oil flow from Venezuela from any of the neighboring ports: Odessa and Klaipeda.

A great surprise, newspapers are now making the most crazy interpretations about shipment costs: each newspaper makes its own calculations.

Nobody is indifferent to this historic event, and the jokes are over about some funny people saying that the announcement of the oil shipment was just to make nervous Russian oil businesspeople.

Now they only talk about how far the Venezuelan oil reaches.

As a result, Venezuela is being mentioned as a positive news as never before in this European region, which is seeing the Latin American country as an alternative for their energy issues.

Venezuela's international policy can put another check mark in the success list under the command of the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution Hugo Chavez. And, who does not want to see it, it's because wants to be blind.