Next year Belarus will pay Russia for a thousand cubic meters only 150 USD and in 2013 the price will be same as at the Russian domestic market – informed Russian daily Viedomosti in an article titled “Russia ends gas conflict with Belarus”. Currently, a thousand cubic meters of gas costs in Russia 105-107 USD.
The agreement on gas export and a sale of Belarusian company Beltransgaz which owns transit pipelines, will be signed on November 25th, during Lukashenka’s visit to Moscow. According to the sources quoted by Viedomosti, the price decrease will cost Gazprom 3 billion dollars, which will be compensated by the profits from the privatized Belarusian companies.
This is the first time such low price was mentioned. Previously, according to estimates of a Belarusian economist Tatsiana Manionok, Belarus was supposed to pay next year about 288 dollars. Should the information obtained by the Russian newspaper turn out to be accurate, the promise given by the prime minister Putin will be accurate. Putin announced on August 15th that Belarus will get gas which accounts the “integration discount factor”. It was supposed to be an award for selling Belarusian transit pipelines and Belarus participation in integration projects promoted by Moscow, which include former Soviet Union countries, such as Customs Union, Common Economic Space and Eurasian Union,
While Gazprom has lowered gas prices for Belarus, the company asked other countries to pay more. Next year Ukraine is facing a drastic price hike from 364 dollars to 556 dollars for a thousand cubic meters. Also Polish consumers can expect similar price increase.
Belsat
