TEHRAN – Three months after Belarusian president’s announcement of oil talks with Iran in October 2016, the country has bought its first oil cargo from Iran.

According to sources close to Reuters, Belarusian oil company Bel Oil has bought this 80,000-ton (600,000 barrels) light and heavy crude oil cargo from National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to be loaded in February.

After Moscow and Minsk’s discord regarding gas prices in 2016 Russia reduced its gas exports to Belarus and this made the Eastern European country to start thinking of a new energy market and thus leaning toward Iran.

In October 2016 Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that Belarus is in talks with Iran on supplies of oil.

"We have been in talks with Iran which is trying to expand its oil market and offers lower prices," Lukashenko told Belarusian lawmakers.

Following Lukashenko, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in December 2016 that Iran is considering cooperation with Belarus in oil industry equipment manufacturing and also oil trade.

This is the first time that Belarus purchases Iranian crude and Belarus’s Bel Oil, a subsidiary of Polish oil company Bel Oil, has taken the first step in this regard.

Bel Oil is going to ship the Iranian crude oil to either the Black Sea port of Odessa or the Baltic port of Ventspils for rail transportation to Belarus, with the logistics yet to be agreed, two trading sources told Reuters.