Patupchyk Swore He Would Return Money For Gas Today

Earlier, the head of the Belarusian Energy Ministry said that the debt for gas would be paid back without any problems until 20 October.

On Friday, 21 October, Belarus’ authorities are going to deliver an additional payment for Russian gas, RIA Novosti informs with reference to the country's Energy Minister Uladzimir Patupchyk.

“We deliver the money today,” – the minister commented on the sidelines of the Russian Energy Forum in Ufa.

According to Patupchyk, the amount of underpayment is 281 million dollars.

We recall that in October, Russia and Belarus agreed on ways out of the oil and gas conflict, that burst in this year. Minsk took the first step forward by returning the old rates for the Russian oil transit. In response, Russia agreed to resume the supplies in the previous volumes. Until October 20, Minsk also has to repay fully the payments for Russian gas, which amounts to more than $ 300 million.

Due to the debt for gas supplies, Russia decided to cut oil supplies to Belarus down to 3.5 million tons in the third quarter, which cost Belarus 0.3% of GDP.

However, Belarus is ready to pay for gas at the same price, in exchange for interbudgetary compensation from Russia, which will be used by the Belarusian side primarily to reduce gas prices for domestic consumers. It is planned that the gas price for Belarus in view of subsidies in 2017 will be about 6 thousand Russian rubles per thousand cubic meters ($ 100) versus 132 dollars this year.