Last week the Belarusian authorities promised to clear arrears ($280 mln) for the supplied Russian natural gas.
“We are going to transfer the money today,” Energy Minister Uladzimir Patupchyk said on Friday.
On October 25, the press service of the Belarusian Energy Ministry stated they had no information about whether the payment had been made. The spokesman for the government refused to comment on the reasons for the delay. According to Russia’s Gazprom, the situation was ‘unclear’. Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Uladzimir Syamashka announced the intention to seek the delay in the payment.
But on Tuesday, Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak warned that Moscow would not provide Belarus with the promised subsidy to partially compensate for the gas price until Minsk paid $280 mln. According to the newspaper Kommersant, the subsidy is over $400 mln, i.e. it significantly exceeds the amount of Belarus’ debt to Gazprom.
Meanwhile, Minsk is threatening to cut purchasing Russia’s energy resources.
“I ordered the government to immediately find a new alternative <…> A tanker is going through Odessa – we will start to supply oil through Ukraine to be processed in Mazyr. The negotiations with Iran are in progress,” president Alyaksandr Lukashenka said.
As reported earlier, a tanker carrying 84,000 tons of Azeri oil for Belarus arrived at the Odessa port last Wednesday. From there, the load will be consigned to Belarus by rail. However, the experts studying Belarus’ economic model stress that our cannot afford to buy much hydrocarbons as its public sector which figures up to 70% of the economy is unable to function without Russia’s energy subsidies.
Belsat.eu
