VILNIUS, 27 August (BelTA) – A tanker with a pilot consignment of Venezuelan oil for Belarus will arrive in Lithuania in the night of August 29. If the sea is calm, then the tanker will dock at the Lithuanian oil terminal on Sunday at 8h00, informed Rokas Masiulis, director general of Klaipedos Nafta. “We are fully ready to receive the tanker with Venezuelan oil for Belarus,” said Rokas Masiulis. As it was informed earlier, Klaipedos Nafta signed a contract to supply a pilot consignment of Venezuelan oil with the Transhema company, which promotes products made by Belneftekhim companies to the markets of Lithuania and other European countries. Transhema is also gearing up to receive the first tanker with Venezuelan oil. “Our company has prepared all the documents and is ready to provide loading and shipment of Venezuelan oil to Belarus by railway. All arrangements for this have been done,” director of Transhema Vitaly Kalugin said. The first tanker will bring about 80,000 tonnes of oil to Lithuania. According to Rokas Masiulis, transshipment of this consignment will allow Klaipedos Nafta to track how the terminal facilities operate, to see the amount of time required for handling, as well as determine which investments would be required to accommodate large consignments of Venezuelan oil. And most importantly it will allow monitoring the impact of transshipments on the environment. Klaipedos Nafta intends to continue negotiations on further supplies of larger consignments of Venezuelan oil. It is interested in the project as the matter concerns an annual transshipment of almost 2 million tonnes via the port of Klaipeda. Before signing an annual contract, the company, however, would like to make sure that the transshipment of such big consignments of oil, approximately 160,000 tonnes of oil per month, is safe for the environment. “It is important for us to have the guarantees of the Belarusian side that it will be long-term supplies, from five to ten years. If we have such guarantees we will be ready to invest additional funds to expand the terminal,” Rokas Masiulis said. Klaipedos Nafta is one of the advanced oil terminals in Europe. The terminal reloads oil products from railway tank cars into tankers. It provides Lithuania with imported oil and oil products shipped to the Klaipeda port by tankers. Transhema has a license of the Belarus Ministry of Transport and Communications to carry out transport and forwarding services in the European Union.

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