Belarus States Fair Price for Russian Gas
The Belarussian Energy Minister Vladimir Potupchik said on Thursday that he considered $73 per 1,000 cubic metres a fair price to pay for Russian gas.
His comments follow a meeting of Russian and Belarussian officials in the city of Mogilev, where they disagreed over whether Belarus owed $125 million in outstanding payments to the Russian energy group Gazprom.
Belarus has received gas at preferential prices from Russia ever since Gazprom took over the Belarussian gas transportation monopoly Beltransgaz. But Belarussian authorities have lobbied for a further discount since last year, without naming its size.
Potupchik refused to reveal the current price that Belarus pays for gas. It stood at $142 per 1,000 cubic metres at the end of last year.
(Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky; writing by Matthias Williams)
