PM: Russia, Belarus to coordinate gas pricing formula

STRELNA, St. Petersburg, Jun 16 (PRIME) -- Belarus and Russia have to coordinate a gas pricing formula, including the currency, in which it will be denominated, but there will be no fixed price, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a news conference following a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State of Russia and Belarus.

“There are no fixed prices, you know that. Even the Soviet Union had fixed prices only for some time, and later the party either lifted them or reduced them. Moreover, the process cannot be fixed in conditions of a free market, but we should obviously coordinate the principles of pricing. We will move that way and discuss all issues, including the currency of payments and pricing for this product, for the gas,” he said.

Belarusian Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov said that Belarus offered to form the price in rubles starting from 2020. “We assume that the partners will receive the offer and we will agree on that and also on the pricing mechanism,” he said.

Minsk is not seeking any preferences or minimal prices for gas. “We only want that…the price for Belarus be comparable to the low prices for our partners when we have a common gas market (within the Eurasian Economic Union),” he said.

He also said that Minsk wants to agree on principles of functioning of the common gas market until the end of 2017, so that the market starts operating from 2025.

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