Report: Oil re-exports to balance high Russian gas price for Minsk

MINSK, Apr 7 (PRIME) -- Moscow will compensate Minsk for what it believes to be a too high gas price with a permit on Russian oil re-exports, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told channel Mir in an interview broadcast late Thursday.

“We pay a hefty price for gas today, this is a fact. We (with Russian President Vladimir Putin) found solutions to the issue (at a meeting on April 3), and Russia will compensate for this difference between the current and the real price to us by oil re-exports,” Lukashenko said.

“They give us millions tonnes of oil: sell it, take the money at the amount of customs duties,” Lukashenko said.

Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said earlier that Minsk had agreed with Moscow on resumption of oil supplies in the previous volume of 24 million tonnes annually until 2024. Supplies will be resumed no later than on April 13.

Belarus will no longer be liable to ship one million tonnes of duty-free oil products to Russia in exchange. Semashko also said that out of 24 million tonnes, 18 million tonnes will be sent to Belarusian refineries and 6 million tonnes will be “readmitted to customs.”

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said that Belarus will pay over U.S. $720 million to Gazprom’s unit as part of gas debt settlement, while Gazprom will provide a discount for gas supplies to Belarus for 2018–2019.

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