Gazprom keeps old higher gas price for Belarus

The price of Russian natural gas for Belarus remains at the level of $132 per 1000 cubic meters - like in 2016, reports the Russian news agency ria.ru quoting a top manager of the Russian gas giant.

"What you have named as 132 [the cost of 1000 cubic meters for Belarus in 2016 - Euroradio] sounds like it is close to the truth, although I don't know where you have got this information from. This year, it is approximately the same," the Gazprom representative said. 

The gas row between Belarus and Russia had lasted since early 2016 and into the first quarter of 2017 before presidents Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Vladimir Putin seemed to have resolved the confict at a summit in St Petersburg last April. The sides then signed several documents that reportedly sorted out the disagreements in this field. Belarus fully settled its debt to Gazprom in amount of $726.2 million. The parties agreed that Russia would use a decreasing ratio when setting the natural gas price for Belarus. On April 13, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich even promised that the gas cost for Belarus would be below $130 per 1000 cubic meters.  

Russian gas to cost $129 per 1000 cubic meters for Belarus in 2018