Belarus Close to Gas Starvation :: Charter'97 :: News

Today talks on cooperation in the sphere of gas between Mikhail Kasyanov and Belarusian prime minister Syarhei Sidorski are to take place. Moscow and Minsk have not settled the matter of gas supply by Gazprom this year, and since beginning of January Russian monopolist has not sold a single cubic meter to Belarus. In January gas demand sof Belarus are satisfied with difficulty due to suppliers independent from Gazprom (Transnafta is to supply 1.2 billions cubic m of gas, Itera – 800 millions cubic m), however in the future Minsk would be unable to buy gas from them because of high price. The Belarusian government has two and a half weeks left to settle the split with Gazprom, which presses for establishment of a joint venture with Beltransgaz on ‘sane’ conditions, as the representatives of the Russian monopolist say.

As a source close to the negotiators told the newspaper “Vremya Novostei”, Minsk can choose one of the two ways. The simplest is to say yes to the market conditions for gas supply. Gazprom offers the Ukrainian model, according to which the price is reduced from 80 to 50 dollars per cubic m, and at the same time the incentive rate for gas transit is determined (in Belarus it amount to 0.73 dollars, in Ukraine – 1.09 dollars). The second way is creation of a joint venture on the conditions proposed by the concern Gazprom. Then the prices for fuel would be equal to the Russian regulated ones.