BELARUS DIGEST

This year Europe will purchase its first oil products from Venezuelan crude refined in Belarusian Mozyr. While Belarusian citizens have a hard time obtaining visas and traveling, Belarusian oil products traverse borders freely and are welcome in the EU regardless of the state of Belarus’ civil society or its human rights situation. The Belarus-Venezuela project, whatever its economic feasibility, may help Minsk get on better terms with its immediate neighbors (perhaps with the exception of Russia) and decrease its reliance on Moscow.

In fact, precisely because the route for delivering Venezuelan oil is so long and tortuous, Belarus is forced to cooperate with Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and other countries on delivering it. The first 80,000-ton “trial” crude was shipped via Ukraine’s Odessa port and then by the rail to the Mozyr refinery. Other transporting possibilities include utilizing Ukraine’s Odessa-Brody pipeline or Lithuanian (Klaipeda), Latvian (Ventspils) or Polish (Gdansk) ports.

While the logistical and financial aspects of the project are being criticized – especially in the Russian press, – and its profitability and efficiency indeed warrant caution, the project may bring Belarus closer to its neighbors that already offer assistance. For example, Lithuanian Prime Minister said that the project of transiting Venezuelan oil through Lithuania was “doable” and that Vilnius could even offer Minsk a discounted tariff rate. Similarly, Ukrainian Prime Minister said that the Venezualan oil project could lead to the “mutually beneficial agreements” between Minsk and Kiev and that Ukraine could provide Minsk with transportation discounts.

The first oil was produced by the JV Petrolera, and another JV will be set up to supervise the sales, with Minsk having a 25 percent stake in the venture. Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Hugo Chavez plan to invest at least $8 billion into developing the oil fields by 2025 and are also considering cooperating in the gas industry.
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“I brought you a greeting from the Axis of Evil,” ironized Chavez, who visited Cuba, Algiers, Libya, and Turkmenistan on his way to Belarus. None of these countries were actually included in the “Axis of Evil” coined by George W. Bush to describe Iran, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and North Korea.

However, all countries Chavez visited on his trip have a roguish reputation in the West for their human rights violations, dictatorial tendencies, and widespread corruption. If Lukashenka takes up Chavez’s call to unite against “hegemonic” capitalism, one day some other political leader may enlist Minsk itself into the infamous Axis – jokingly or in earnest.

This September is not the first time Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visits his “favorite” country Belarus. This time he extolling Belarus as “a model social state like the one we [Venezuelans] are beginning to create.” No less enthusiastic, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka praised the benefits of the likely “strategic partnership” between Minsk and Caracas and thanked Chavez for his “colossal support.” The presidents agreed not “to be deceived or exploited by anyone” and “defend the interests of the individual and not the hegemonic interests of the capitalists, wherever they may be, in Europe or Latin America.” Chavez went as far as flaunting the idea of “a new union of republics” incorporating Belarus and Venezuela. “This will not be a union of Soviet or socialist republics,” he clarified. “It will be free republics with their own systems, but united in a union.”

Some may dismiss the presidents’ rhetoric as mere posturing. However, Belarus-Venezuela partnership could have far-reaching consequences, provided the marriage of Belarusian arms to Venezuelan oil lasts. Contemporary examples of such oil-for-arms arrangements include the US-Saudi Arabia partnership, in which American weaponry pays for Saudi oil, and China’s relationship with African oil-producers, in which Chinese arms pay for African crude.

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