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Prime Minister Sidorski expects Gazprom to agree to keep its price for Belarus at last year’s level

Belarus expects to reach an agreement with Gazprom that the price of Russian natural gas for Belarus will remain this year at the 2009 level, Prime Minister Syarhey Sidorski said while visiting Homyel on Wednesday.

The Belarusian government has sent proposals for investment to Gazprom and if the Russian company finds them interesting, the price of gas will remain at last year’s level, Mr. Sidorski said, according to the Council of Ministers press office.

The press office does not say what proposals Mr. Sidorski was talking about.

The prime minister reportedly noted that the proposals were based on agreements reached by the presidents of Belarus and Russia at a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State in December last year.

Belarus promptly paid for Russia gas deliveries in 2009 and continues to promptly pay this year, Mr. Sidorski said. “I think we’ll reach an agreement with Gazprom as to how we’ll pay for gas in 2010,” he added.

Gazprom currently abides by the initial conditions of the contract, setting the price for Belarus at 90 percent of the average European price against 70 percent in 2009. “Given a fall in gas prices in spot markets, we consider it possible to apply a factor of 0.75 in 2010,” Mr. Sidorski said.

Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller said in December that the price of Russian natural gas for Belarus would be about $168 per 1000 cubic meters in the first three months of 2010, or 11 percent higher than the average price in 2009.

“Owing to the absence of export duty, the gas price for Belarus is considerably lower than for other buyers of Russian gas,” Mr. Miller said. “The agreed period of transition to higher prices allows the Belarusian economy to adapt.”

The price of Russian gas for Belarus is determined by a five-year contract signed with Gazprom at the end of 2006.

Under the contract, the price for Belarus was raised to $100 per 1000 cubic meters for 2007 compared with $46.68 in the previous two and a half years. The price was to gradually increase to the European market level by 2011. It was to be 67 percent of the level, excluding delivery costs, in 2008, 80 percent in 2009, 90 percent in 2010, and 100 percent in 2011. //BelaPAN