| The White House intends to cooperate with Belarus only on a market basis The Russian government has finally decided to clearly define its position on the issue of Russian-Belarusian relations in the gas sector. True, the White House continues to officially distance itself from the negotiations between economic entities - Gazprom and Beltransgaz, and therefore the information comes from an unnamed high-ranking source in the government. The very fact of the emergence of a firm position suggests that Moscow no longer intends to tolerate non-compliance by the Belarusian side with the intergovernmental agreement “On cooperation in the gas sector.”
According to a high-ranking official, in the year and a half that has passed since the signing of the agreement to create a joint venture based on Beltransgaz, the Russian side has made a significant advance to Minsk without receiving anything in return. That is why now, he says, it was decided to return to the market regime and, in a “calm atmosphere,” try to implement the agreements on the gas pipeline system.
In May 2002, the Russian and Belarusian prime ministers signed an agreement on cooperation in the gas sector. It envisaged the creation of a joint venture with Gazprom based on the Belarusian gas transportation system, as well as the introduction of Russian gas pricing practices for Belarus. In other words, even then the gas monopolist began to supply fuel to the neighboring republic at the price of the 5th belt of the Russian Federation, which is set by the Federal Energy Commission (FEC) - at 22 dollars per thousand cubic meters instead of the previous 30 dollars. According to a government official , according to the signed documents, the joint venture was supposed to be created by July 1, 2003, i.e. gas benefits were provided to Minsk in advance.
In monetary terms, during the year of “advance” tariffs, Belarus saved about $80 million, the Russian government calculated. “However, by June 30, only the first official paper on the creation of the joint venture was prepared, i.e. “nothing was done at all,” says the official. “And if until this moment the FEC prices for supplies to Belarus were programmed in the intergovernmental agreement, then from July 1 the advance took the form of a gesture of goodwill on our part.” The preferential regime was in effect until the expiration of the contract with Gazprom at the end of last year. “During this time, our colleagues in Minsk only managed to present the absolutely outrageous conditions for creating a joint venture,” says a government source. “The valuation of Beltransgaz at $5 billion, the demand for annual investment in it at $1.7 billion and the increase in gas export transit through Belarus to an exorbitant 100 billion cubic meters per year were a complete mockery.” At the same time, Minsk’s proposals, according to him, like all negotiations with the Belarusian side, were richly flavored with rhetoric about the creation of a union state.
“We immediately said that Beltransgaz’s pipes themselves are worth nothing, and its transit and gas distribution business, which can be valued, is possible only with the participation of Gazprom,” noted a White House representative. The conversation proposed by Gazprom about the book value of Beltransgaz assets ($580 million), the official believes, is nothing more than an attempt to shift the conversation to an accounting plane and set some real benchmark for the price. The real value of Beltransgaz’s business should be calculated by independent appraisers, whose selection is currently underway. “But even their assessment will remain a subject for further negotiations, and advances from previous years will be taken into account,” he said.
Thus, the Russian government has the following position: until the creation of a joint venture by Gazprom and Beltransgaz, gas will be supplied at market prices, but negotiations on the gas transportation system will continue. “I think it will be easier for Minsk to decide what is more profitable, to have gas for $50 and national pride in the form of a pipe, or to receive fuel at FEC prices and create a joint venture with Gazprom,” said a senior White House official. At the same time, he noted, there is a risk of unauthorized withdrawal (or simply theft) of gas by the Belarusian side, but if this happens, the government believes, Russian interests will sooner or later be compensated, and the consequences for Belarus will be very severe.
Representatives of the Belarusian government decided to refrain from making specific comments on the position of their Russian colleagues. The press secretary of the Prime Minister of Belarus, Yevgeny Meleshko, told the Vremya Novostey newspaper: “The government (of Belarus - Ed. ) spoke out about this earlier, now the enterprises are reaching an agreement.”
Negotiations between Gazprom and Beltransgaz, as is known, have not yet broken the deadlock. As sources close to the Russian concern told the Vremya Novostey newspaper, the heads of the companies, Alexey Miller and Pyotr Petukh, are now looking for a gas price acceptable for Belarus, while the issue of the joint venture, according to sources, is still being delayed.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Energy of Belarus, just in case, decided to diversify energy flows to the republics. A representative of Belenergo claims that the relevant ministry is already negotiating with Kiev about the possibility of supplying Ukrainian electricity to the country (currently electricity in Belarus is generated at gas power plants). The government of the republic says that the idea of buying Ukrainian electricity is directly related to problems in negotiations with Gazprom. “You can’t put all your eggs in one basket,” said a representative of the Belarusian leadership. Anna NAUMOVA, Minsk, Alexey GRIVACHS |
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