OREANDA-NEWS. January 13, 2009. The Belarusian oil refineries will not roll back investment programmes in connection with the global financial crisis, the Belneftekhim concern told while commenting on the work of the Mozyr Oil Refinery and Naftan refinery.
 
“The refineries function without failures, at full load. There is not any slowdown in the demand for petroleum products,” the Belneftekhim concern said. On the whole, the consequences of the global financial crisis affected the refineries to a lesser degree than other enterprises,” they noted in Belneftekhim.

The Belarusian refineries will have lesser profits in December 2008 and January 2009 than in previous months. In December there was a considerable fall in oil prices on the foreign market, and that influenced the volume of export earnings. Besides, on December 1 Belneftekhim reduced the price for petrol and diesel fuel by 10% on the domestic market. But it is necessary to take into account that the enterprises of the concern buy oil at cheaper prices as a result of the world prices cut. “Nowadays the refineries operate at a profit”, they stressed in Belneftekhim and noted that December and January figures will be released a bit later.

In 2009 many Belarusian drivers are interested whether prices for petroleum products will rise on the domestic market. Belneftekhim did not give any definite answer. Experts think that prices will be at the same level despite the devaluation.

Naftan and Mozyr oil refineries process altogether about 21.5 million tonnes of oil per year. As a result of the implementation of the corporate development programmes, in 2011 this figure is projected to increase to 25 million tonnes per year. It is projected that the depth of oil processing at the Belarusian enterprises will amount to 92-93%.