Across the daddy

Gazprom is preparing to limit gas supplies to Belarus

Moscow decided to remind Minsk about the growing debt for gas, thereby continuing to use all available levers of influence on Belarus in order to speed up the start of the functioning of the Customs Union. Yesterday, a meeting took place between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Gazprom head Alexei Miller, where the situation surrounding gas supplies to the “brotherly republic” was discussed. Mr. Miller warned that Gazprom has every right to reduce the volume of gas for Belarus from Minsk's outstanding debt of $192 million over six months. Dmitry Medvedev gave five days to resolve the conflict: “Let’s do this then: taking into account the fact that we interact with Belarus in a partnership manner, we will give a five-day period for our colleagues to decide how to behave further.” The head of state noted that after this period, the gas concern may apply “strict measures.”

Belarus should switch to a pan-European gas price formula next year. For now, Gazprom supplies blue fuel at a 10% discount on European prices. However, since the beginning of the year, Minsk has been paying for Russian gas at a price of $150 per thousand cubic meters, while according to the contract its cost is $169.2. Since last year, Belarus has been trying to get Russia to change the terms of the contract, but Moscow is not agreeing to new benefits going. In May, Gazprom management sent a letter to Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko and the head of Beltransgaz Vladimir Mayorov, warning that gas supplies may be limited due to non-compliance with the terms of the contract. The warning was ignored: for April, Minsk again paid $150 per thousand cubic meters. As a result, Belarus' debt has already grown to $192 million, and, as Gazprom warned, at this rate it could reach $500-600 million by the end of the year.

Last week, Alexander Lukashenko came to Moscow, where he alternately met with the president and the prime minister. The main purpose of the visit, after which the parties were extremely stingy in their comments, was apparently to discuss the conditions for the functioning of the Customs Union. However, the situation with Belarus’ gas debt was also discussed: Alexander Lukashenko tried to pity Moscow, assuring that now the country simply does not have the money to pay for supplies. “I talked with Alexander Grigorievich, he said that the debt situation is determined by the difficult financial situation. But, to be honest, it’s difficult for everyone now, and Gazprom has a lot of problems. Therefore, unfortunately, this is an insufficient explanation,” Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday. However, Alexey Miller believes that not everything is so bad in Belarus. He recalled that the volume of acquired Beltransgaz shares in the amount of $2.5 billion was aimed “to compensate for the increase in gas prices,” and this year the last tranche in the amount of $625 million took place. “So the Belarusian side received this year full amount of money from Gazprom for the stake in Beltransgaz and has the financial resources to pay for Russian gas in accordance with the terms of the contract to increase gas prices in 2010,” said the head of Gazprom. In response to this, Mr. Medvedev instructed Alexey Miller to contact the heads of the relevant Belarusian structures that are dealing with this issue, and offer them to repay the debt as soon as possible.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Moscow was not so serious about a new gas war. When Minsk once again calculated the cost of Russian gas in its own way, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government Igor Sechin said that he “does not think that gas supplies will be limited,” because, in his opinion, “it does not happen that the contract is respected only with one side." However, since Mr Lukashenko's visit late last week, Moscow's position has changed dramatically. And it is obvious that restrictions on gas supplies in the summer have only a psychological effect. According to Alexander Lukashenko himself, after a “stormy discussion” of some controversial issues, it was not possible to come to a common denominator even with the “beaten wolf Vladimir Putin”. As is known, Belarus is seeking from Russia the abolition of export duties on all oil supplied to the country. Moscow is not ready to take such a step and proposes to wait at least until the emergence of a single economic space in 2012. On Monday, the Belarusian parliament was supposed to ratify the agreement on the Customs Code of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. However, the issue about it was not even included on the agenda of the meeting after Mr. Lukashenko returned from Moscow. The parliaments of Russia and Kazakhstan have already approved the document, but Belarus has less and less time left, because it should come into force on July 1.

Kirill MELNIKOV