MINSK, May 29 – PrimePress. Russia’s gas monopolist Gazprom will be ready to negotiate gas supplies to Belarus after 2021 as soon as Minsk has settled a $165.6 million debt, CEO Alexei Miller told reporters on Friday.
”The total amount of Belarus’ debt for supplies of Russian gas stands at $165.570 million. As soon as the debt is fully settled, the Russian side will be ready to schedule negotiations on conditions of gas supplies from January 1, 2021,” Miller said.
The official said that Gazprom had sent a letter to the energy minister of Belarus, stating this position.
A similar situation already happened in 2017, when in April, Gazprom and the Belarusian government signed a protocol on the formation of gas prices for Belarus in 2018-2019 only after the Belarusian authorities had paid the debt of $726.2 million for gas supplied in 2016-2017.
As previously reported, in a telephone conversation with Prime Minister of Belarus Sergey Rumas on May 27 Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin emphasized that Belarus and Russia should strictly adhere to oil and gas agreements.
In February 2020, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Belarusian ambassador to Russia Vladimir Semashko signed a document on the gas pricing formula for 2020, keeping the price for Belarus flat on the year at U.S. $127 per 1,000 cubic metres. Since then, Belarus has been insisting that the price of Russian gas for Belarus should be reduced. Previously, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko repeatedly insisted that Russian gas for Minsk should equal Russia’s domestic prices, as provided for by the 2011 agreement on the sale of Beltransgaz gas transmission company to Gazprom.
Prime Minister of Belarus Sergey Rumas said on May 14 that Belarus would try to prove to Gazprom in May 2020 that the price of gas imported from Russia at $127 per 1,000 cubic meters is excessive, since the spot price stands at $80.
News Courtesy : Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in New Delhi, India
