Russia and Belarus signed a formal agreement on Friday resolving an oil transit row that had disrupted supplies through the main export pipeline to Europe, Russian media said.
Officials from the two countries reached "a balanced solution, corresponding to the interests of both countries," Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said in televised comments, admitting that "talks went hard."
"This is a result of complications in our ties. But all is well that ends well, I hope that all have drawn their conclusions and in the future we will be able to avoid such situations," Fradkov said.
"I think everyone must be satisfied with the formula we have signed," Sidorsky said.
The agreement came after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko talked on Friday by telephone, unblocking the final obstacles in a dispute that had disrupted oil supplies to the EU last week and damaged Russia's reputation as a reliable energy supplier.
The agreement covered several aspects of the countries' complex oil trading arrangements, which Moscow had said earlier were being unfairly exploited by Belarus.
Moscow had accused Minsk of making disproportionate profits by processing cheap Russian oil and selling it on European markets.
The dispute prompted the shutdown of the Druzhba pipeline -- Russia's main oil export pipeline to Europe -- for three days beginning on Monday.
On Friday, Fradkov said that Minsk would pay a tax of US$53 per tonne of oil that it imports from Russia and would also pay Moscow a tariff on exports of oil products made in Belarusian refineries using Russian oil.
"We will have [US$53] for each tonne supplied to Belarus," he was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.
Monday's shutdown came when Belarus attempted to impose a US$45-per-tonne tax on oil crossing its territory from Russia to Europe, a tax Moscow said was illegal.
The tax was in retaliation for an earlier demand by Moscow for a US$180-per-tonne tariff on Belarusian oil imports from Russia.
Oil supplies resumed late on Wednesday when Putin and his Lukashenko said they had reached an agreement in principle, which they left to be hammered out by officials in talks that lasted until late on Friday.
RSS