April 22, Pozirk. Alaksandar Łukašenka has told the newly appointed minister of natural resources, Siarhiej Maślak, “to dig and look for oil,” his press office reports.
“We need you to make everyone work in this direction,” he said, noting a lack of competition in oil exploration and production in Belarus in an apparent reference to the state-run Biełaruśnafta.
“We didn’t come up with the idea [that] there should be competition,” Łukašenka added. “There should be more opinions, more experiences and so on.”
One month earlier, the Belarusian leader held a government conference on oil exploration. “If we had five million tons of oil today, instead of about two million, we would be a rich state,” he said.
