Lukashenka still hopes for a cheap gas
- 23.01.2008, 13:14
The official Minsk continues talks on Russian gas for Belarus. On January 22 a Belarusian delegation headed by Economy Minister of Belarus Mikalay Zajchanka. “Earlier the sides agreed upon the price for Russian gas for Belarus for the year 2008. Now the Belarusian side plans to fix the price for the years 2009 and 2010,” told a source in bodies of state administration to ITAR-TASS agency.
As said by him, talks on this issue took place in Moscow in the end of December, however the sides agreed to continue discussion of these issue in the end of January 2008.
According to the 5-year contract signed on January 31, 2006, since the year 2008 the cost for the Russian gas for Belarus is to be defined by a formula connected to the cost of oil resources at European markets. This year it is to make 67%, nest year 80%, and in 2010 – 90% of the average European cost for gas minus transportation costs.
The new formula of the cost meant transition of the Russian-Belarusian relations to a new method of determination of gas price proceeding from a principle of equal profitability for the Russian concern both on the European and Belarusian markets.
Proceeding from the price of $260 per 1,000 cubic metres (which was the price of gas for Poland in the end of 2007) and a discount for Belarus for the year 2008, and after deduction of transportation costs, the gas price should make about $160 per 1,000 cubic metres. In the first quarter of this year Belarus pays for gas $119 per 1,000 cubic metres.
What the price would be in the future is unknown, but as Yaraslau Ramanchuk stated in an interview to the Charter’97 press-center earlier, “a cheap price for gas is a price Belarus pays for an opportunity of Russian financial structures to enter the Belarusian market”.
“Though the system of pricing of Russian gas for Belarus is purely political, in the course of time we would have to pay a market price, and it is unavoidable, if we are not speaking about the loss of the country’s independence,” Yaraslau Ramanchuk said.