Page 12 - FSUOGM Week 22
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FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM
Gazprom says Belarus owes $166mn for gas
BELARUS
Belarus and Russia are still squabbling about gas prices.
RUSSIA’S natural gas monopoly Gazprom has accused the Belarusian government of accumu- lating $166mn of debt for supplied gas.
“The total amount of Belarusian debt for the supply of Russian gas as of today is $165.57mn. As soon as the debt is fully settled, the Russian side will be ready to schedule negotiations on the terms of gas supplies beginning on January 1, 2021,” news agency Interfax quoted Gazprom’s CEO Alexei Miller as saying on May 29.
The same day, Belarusian Energy Ministry said Minsk owes no debt to Russia’s Gazprom for gas, according to state-controlled media.
Belarusian PM Sergei Rumas believes that the cash-strapped country has “a great chance” to secure the downward revision of natural gas prices for Belarus in 2020. “I think we have a great chance to agree on a fair gas price for Belarus in 2020. I hope Russia will take our position into account,” Rumas said on May 14 following his meeting with President Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Lukashenko said that Russia sells natural gas in Europe “during [these] difficult times” at a price under $70 per 1,000 cubic metres to the EU member states, while at $127 to Belarus.
“Such things will not work. I am not even talking about the year of the 75th anniversary [of the Victory in the Second World War], when Germany gets natural gas at the price under $70,
according to the information I have, but not at $127, the price set for Belarus,” said the president. In late April, Russian Energy Minister Alex- ander Novak said that Russia was not going to revise downward natural gas prices for Belarus in 2020. The Belarusian government is seeking to reduce the price Belarus pays for Russian natural gas in 2020, which has been raised, Energy Min-
ister Viktor Karankevich said on April 9. According to the minister, global prices for energy resources, including prices for nat- ural gas, are falling, and the Belarusian side approached Russia’s Gazprom with a request to consider reducing the price for natural gas supplied to Belarus in 2020. Minsk has sug- gested buying certain amounts of natural gas via commodity exchanges at competitive prices, Karankevich added. The terms of implementing this mechanism will be discussed at forthcoming
negotiations with the Russian side.
In February, Lukashenko said that the coun-
try should pay about $90 per 1,000 cubic metres for Russian natural gas in 2020 instead of the current price of $127 per 1,000 cubic metres. “As for natural gas, it costs less than $110 in Europe today. It was not our minister who told me that, but a major Russian businessman. [...] It is the price paid in Europe via commodity exchanges.”
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 22 03•June•2020
