Oil prices rise on Reuters report of Russian flows halt

Oil prices rose above $81 per barrel on Jan. 3 after Reuters exclusively reported that Russia halted oil flows to Belarus in a dispute over pricing for 2010. The dispute sent jitters across the EU as it served as a reminder of a similar row in January 2007 when Poland and Germany were left short of Russian crude for a few days because Belarus halted massive Russian transit oil flows in retaliation of a move by Russia to cut oil to Belarus. Russia serves 15 percent of Germany’s oil needs and 75 percent of Polish needs with supplies which run via pipeline crossing Belarus.