PM: Belarus hopes for good price for Russian gas in 2021

MINSK, Nov 3 (PRIME) -- Belarus expects to reach an agreement on an “attractive” price of Russian natural gas for the country in 2021, Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said late on Monday in an interview aired on Belarus 1 television channel.

“We have not yet reached a final agreement (on the gas price in 2021) so far, negotiations are going on. … We would like to reach next year’s pricing formation for natural gas for Belarus very soon. And we expect it to be attractive for us,” he said.

The gas price for Belarus in 2020 stands at U.S. $127 per 1,000 cubic meters.

Golobchenko also said that Minsk had no debts for gas and that settlements for the consumed gas have been finished.

“Settlements for the consumed gas have been finished. Currently, we have no debts to the Russian Federation,” he said.

On September 3, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that prime ministers of the two countries ordered the government agencies to work out solutions for Belarus to redeem its debts for gas supplied earlier this year. On September 21, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that Belarus would allocate about $330 million of a $500 million loan of the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development to debt repayment to Gazprom.

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