Saturday, 27 June 2009
Gazprom has sent Belarus a letter demanding it pay $244 million in gas debts, and warning that supplies could be cut if the sum is not cleared, the Russian energy giant's CEO said on Friday.
"Belarus' debt totals $244 million, and we have sent a letter demanding that the debt be paid," Alexei Miller said.
Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said Friday in parliament that his country would keep paying for Russian gas at the average annual price, and will start to repay the debt to Gazprom.
The debt has arisen due to differences between contract and average prices, in the first quarter Belarus paid $210 per 1,000 cubic meters, but by the end of the year this figure should have dropped to under $100. In line with verbal agreements the price should average out at $150 per 1,000 cubic meters.
"From August we will start repaying the debt and by November we should be paying in full the actual price," he said.
Semashko said Belarusian gas company Beltransgaz on March 20 handed Gazprom an addendum to the contract stipulating that Belarus pay the average annual price. "But the addendum has not been signed yet," he said.
He also said the Belarusian government expects Russian gas prices to reach $166 per 1,000 cubic meters on January 1, 2010 if oil prices remain around the $70 per barrel mark this year.
Semashko said Belarus has failed to pump 2 billion cu m of gas into storage facilities in the first half of this year, but added that Gazprom is not expected to take any action against Belarus for this.
"Incomplete gas samples are not a specific problem for Belarus. In the first quarter of this year the European Union failed to receive about 30% of the expected volume of Russian gas, and Ukraine 40%," he said.
