Russia halts oil flow to Belarus refineries: Traders

Russia has suspended oil flows to Belarussian refineries after failing to agree pricing terms for 2010 but the transit of Russian oil to Germany and Poland via Belarus is continuing as usual, traders said on Sunday.

Two traders from major Russian oil producers said crude had not been flowing since January 1 but added that two Belarussian refineries - Naftan and Mozyr - had enough stockpiled crude to continue operations for around a week.

They said Belarus had threatened to raise transit fees on Russian oil supplies to Poland and Germany by a factor of 10 to $45 per tonne in retaliation to Russian demands on Belarus to pay full export duties on some crude supplies to its refineries.