Rosneft goes to Belarus on gas – the company to be ready to provide competition to Gazprom

Rosneft’s Head, Igor Sechin continues his campaign on entry to Gazprom’s markets, combining it with plans on the strengthening of the oil company’s positions in Belarus. It became known yesterday that Rosneft discussed gas supplies to the country – in particular, to the largest local nitrogen-fertilizer maker Grodno-Azot. The mechanism, using which Rosneft is going to get round the Gazprom’s monopoly, isn’t clear – it is a question of not LNG, on which export liberalization is real, but of pipeline gas.

Rosneft’s President Igor Sechin, who is going to consolidate his company’s status as the monopolistic oil exporter to Belarus and, as sources of  Kommersant assure, takes part in the arrangement of a conflict of the country with Uralkalyi, wants to have more. Yesterday the Belarusian state concern Belneftekhim reported that last week during the meeting of the Rosneft’s President, Igor Sechin and the concern’s Head, Igor Zhilin “the possibilities of gas supplies by Rosneft” to the concern’s enterprises, including to Grodno Azot “were discussed”. The names of the enterprises weren’t specified. Grodno Azot consumes about 2 billion cubic meters per year, now it is supplied by Gazprom..