“Gazprom” Vice-Chairman: Putin Refused To Discuss Gas Prices With Lukashenka

The Russian Federation’s leader only discussed the oil issue with the Belarusian dictator.

The gas issue wasn’t discussed during the meeting of the state leaders of Russia and Belarus on Tuesday, the “Gazprom” Vice-Chairman Valery Golubev has informed to “Interfax”.

According to him, they only talked through the oil issue.

Golubev has also said that Belarus still hasn’t paid the debt for gas. Russia and Belarus have not regulated the problem of debt for the gas supplies, he has added.

Belarusian Minister of Energy Uladzimir Patupchyk announced repayment of the said debt a month ago. However, since then the issue hasn’t been confirmed or developed in any way.

Lukashenka flew to Moscow on Tuesday, but the gas dispute wasn’t on the agenda at the top level.

For the time period of January-September 2016, the Belarusian users have accumulated the debt for the gas supplies for the sum of $ 340 million, according to the newest memorandum of the “Gazprom” Eurobonds.

The Russian President’s Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said the following in a comment upon the journalists’ question about the results of the meeting between Putin and Lukashenka: “They were done after midnight, the meeting took long, ended well, but they haven’t reported the results yet.”

As reported earlier, in the third quarter Russia cut the oil supplies to Belarus from 5,3 million tons to 3,5 million tons. Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and Energy Minister Alexander Novak explained that the reduction was due to the conflict caused by Belarus’ non-payment for the Russian gas. In the fourth quarter, they planned to cut the shipments more, by 500 thousand tons, down to 3 million tons.

Dvorkovich also informed about the agreements with Belarus to adjust the indicative balance of oil and oil products after the settlement of gas problems. In particular, to return to the oil supply to Belarus in the amount of 24 million tons and to the legally binding scope of supply of oil products in the amount of 1 million tons from Belarus to Russia. However, the final documents have not yet been signed.