A cut in Russian oil exports to several EU countries -- including Germany and Poland -- through Belarus in a dispute yesterday spotlighted the EU's vulnerability to tensions between Moscow and its former Soviet neighbors.
Russian oil deliveries to EU member Slovakia were also interrupted on the Ukrainian border on Monday as part of the ongoing energy conflict, a spokesman for the Slovak economy ministry said.
Czech industry ministry spokesman Tomas Bartovsky said his country's supplies of Russian oil would also cease within minutes of the Slovak-Ukraine interruption, forcing the Czech Republic -- which joined the EU in 2005 -- to draw on around 52,000 tonnes to 55,000 tonnes of reserves held by private companies in Slovakia.
Belarusian state TV quoted sources at Gomeltransneft Druzhba, which operates the Druzhba pipeline, confirming statements from Germany and Poland that transit of Russian oil had stopped.
Moscow said Belarus provoked the disruption by illegally siphoning off Russian oil, but authorities in the former Soviet republic said oil was taken as a form of transit payment imposed on Jan. 1 because Moscow had refused to pay.
The Belarusian foreign ministry said officials were flying to Moscow for emergency talks.
In Poland meanwhile, deputy economy minister Piotr Naimski told a press conference that Russia could also be blamed for the halt in exports.
"Problems have also appeared in Ukraine," he said. "If this is the case, the affair also concerns the Russian-Belarus border and that means the Russian side is participating."
He even suggested Russia could be artificially "withholding" exports to weaken Belarus in their transit fee dispute.
The dispute between the two neighbors and the fallout further down the export lines highlighted the EU's dependence on Russia's vast energy supplies and vulnerability to instability on Russia's borders.
The executive European Commission in Brussels said there was no immediate threat to EU oil supplies.
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the incident demonstrated the importance of diversifying energy sources so as not to depend on one supplier.
"We must save energy, we must also turn to renewable energies and we must think about the consequences of phasing out nuclear energy," she told ARD TV.
The Druzhba pipeline supplied approximately 20 percent of Germany's annual oil imports, or 23.4 million tonnes, in 2005, the German oil industry federation said.
The federation said on Monday there was no risk to supplies to German consumers.
The oil row followed a New Year's dispute over a more than doubling of Russian gas prices for Belarus, also prompting fears of a knock-on effect for western Europe.
The latest spat began when Russia imposed new export taxes on oil sold to Belarus where the economy relies largely on a refining industry based on Russian-subsidized energy imports.
Belarus retaliated against the Jan. 1 tariff by imposing its own transit fee on Russian oil.
Russian deputy economic development minister Andrei Sharonov said Belarus was "starting to take oil because Russia is not paying the illegally introduced tariff," the Echo of Moscow radio station reported.
He warned: "One must not forget that Russia is Belarus's main market and number one economic partner. Because of this, we have the possibility to take adequate measures ... and obtain a cancelation of the tariff."
However, Belarus insisted that it was acting legitimately and was not at fault for the energy shortfalls in western Europe.
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