Belarus plans to reduce the share of Russian oil imports from the current 90% to less than 40% of its oil consumption, as the two countries are disagreeing on pricing for new supply and on compensation for tainted oil supplies in the summer of 2019. Consequently, Russia stopped oil deliveries to Belarusian refineries on 1 January 2020 and partially restarted supplies on 4 January 2020.
Belarus state-owned oil company Belneftekhim considers that Russian prices are too high and that it must find alternative supply sources, especially in a context of oil delivery suspension. Its subsidiary BNK has signed a short-term agreement to import crude oil from Equinor's Johan Sverdrup field in Norway via the Klaipeda port in Lithuania. Belarus intends to import 30% of its oil supply from the Baltic ports and around 30% from Ukraine. The country already sent offers to Ukraine, Poland, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and the Baltic states to buy oil from them.
In 2019, Russian oil exports to Belarus via the Druzhba pipeline declined by 2.2% to reach 17.6 Mt. Deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline accounts for 10% of European Union (EU) oil needs; the dispute between Russia and Belarus has not affected oil exports to EU.