Opinions & Interviews

SOCHI, 14 May (BelTA) – Belarus intends to come to terms with Russia on the formula for pricing natural gas by 1 July 2019. The statement was made by Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko, who took part in the Atomexpo forum in Sochi on 14 May, BelTA has learned.

The official said: “When the composition of the Russian Federation government is officially announced, we will understand who we are going to work with and we will resume these negotiations. We have time for now since we have to determine the pricing formula and the trajectory we are going to use in order to move towards similar prices for natural gas by 1 July 2019.”

The deputy prime minister explained that Belarus is interested in buying Russian gas at a price, which is tied to the Russian domestic price for natural gas. At present Belarus buys natural gas using a formula, which takes into account the price paid in the Russian Federation’s Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area. The formula is satisfactory on the whole but it needs optimization, believes Vladimir Semashko. “We need similar prices for natural gas at the [Belarusian-Russian] border. We joined the Eurasian Economic Union with this in mind,” he said.

Asked how personnel changes in the Russian government may affect the negotiation process, Vladimir Semashko remarked that some moment of adaptation and adjustment was expected. He reminded he had had to deal with many deputy prime ministers of the Russian government, the negotiation process could be rather complicated, however, the resulting agreements had been fulfilled. “I think we will be able to come to terms with the new counterpart, too,” concluded the deputy prime minister of Belarus.