Belarus settles with Russia for gas
Belarus has paid in full an overdue amount of $726.2 million to the Russian company Gazprom for delivery of gas in 2016-2017, as reported in Gazprom’s press release.
It was noted that since the beginning of last year, Belarusian consumers have been underpaying the Russian gas company Gazprom Transgaz Belarus, possibly because the price was not calculated according to the formula stipulated in the contract, but from the gas prices in Europe, which at that time fell drastically. In response, Russia reduced the amount of oil it was sending to Belarus.
Last week, the leaders of the two countries agreed that Minsk would fully pay the debt for the gas, and Moscow would restore the oil supply to the amount of 24 million tons annually. In 2018 and 2019, Gazprom will also give Minsk a discount by lowering one of the factors in the formula used to calculate the price of gas.
On April 9, Russia allocated a loan to Belarus for $1 billion “on good terms.”