Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko believes that in current conditions, the price of Russian gas for the republic should be $40-$45 per 1,000 cubic meters, including transportation costs
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd April, 2020) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko believes that in current conditions, the price of Russian gas for the republic should be $40-$45 per 1,000 cubic meters, including transportation costs.
"Everyone believes that we buy natural gas for $120 per 1,000 cubic meters. But it's not so ... Late last year they slipped us this contract: '$127, we can't do less.' And we pay them $20 for [transportation via] Beltransgaz, which they bought from us, [so the final price is] $147. They sell to Ukraine at about the same price. We see now how oil prices fell, and gas prices have followed them. Today, there are no prices in Europe like that. It is already as low as $80 in Germany, but there are another 3,000 kilometers to pump it there, and this is the main cost. This means that the price for Belarus should actually be about $40-$45, including logistics," Lukashenko told the Mir broadcaster, which is jointly run by former Soviet republics.
In early February, Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Lukashenko in Sochi. Following the meeting, the deputy head of the Russian presidential administration, Dmitry Kozak, said that the conditions for gas supplies to Minsk this year will remain the same as last year.
However, Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Krutoy said back then that Minsk did not rule out a "slight adjustment" in the price of Russian gas delivered for the republic this year. He said Belarus would seek a small adjustment in its favor, but "as a basis case, the price of $127, in fact, is already fixed at the level of the presidents."
Later in February, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and the Belarusian ambassador in Moscow signed a document on the pricing procedure for gas deliveries to the republic this year. Meanwhile, the Belarusian side insisted that Russian gas should be cheaper for Minsk. Lukashenko even claimed that Gazprom had earned three times more from gas deliveries to Belarus than from supplies to Germany, and demanded that Russia supplies gas to Belarus at domestic prices, which, he claimed, had been agreed in 2011 during the sale of Beltransgaz to Russia's Gazprom.
