Lukashenka’s Losses Are Millions of Euros: Gazprom Stopped Pumping Gas through Belarus to the EU

How was this explained in the Russian concern?

On October 30, it became known that the pumping of gas from Russia to Europe through Belarus through the Yamal-Europe pipeline had ceased. Later, Gazprom commented on the information, telegraf.by reports. How can this affect the budget of Belarus?

The Yamal - Europe gas pipeline passes through Belarus, through which gas goes to Poland and then to Germany. The pipe's capacity is almost 33 billion cubic meters per year.

According to Gascade, gas pumping dropped sharply from 09:00 to 10:00 Moscow time, and, in the period from 10:00 to 11:00, it stopped completely, TASS wrote. In addition, small volumes of gas flowing in the opposite direction were observed.

At the same time, it became known earlier that Ukraine will soon increase the supply of firewood to Europe in order to save it from gas shortages. According to the head of the Center for Analysis and Strategy Igor Chalenko, the Europeans lack 70 billion cubic meters of gas to cover these needs during this heating season, until the Nord Stream-2 is launched, MK.RU noted.

However, later Gazprom stated that “European consumers' requests for Russian gas supplies are being fulfilled in full,” and “fluctuations in demand for Russian gas depend on the actual needs of buyers,” TASS reported.

How will it affect the budget?

Any interruption or reduction in transit is likely to affect the profits of Belarus through which the pipeline passes.

For example, when it was a question of cutting gas supplies to the European Union through Belarus by 70% by Gazprom, Telegraf noted that the profit of Belarus from transit would be several times less.

It is difficult to say how much the Belarusian budget receives from the transit of Russian gas through the territory of Belarus since these data were not officially announced. However, it is possible to make certain estimates based on indirect evidence.

Earlier, RUPEC analyst Alexander Sobko said in an interview with the Russian news agency Sputnik that "the Polish-Belarusian route has always been cheaper because it is a shorter route with a fairly low transit price - $ 7 per thousand cubic meters (through Ukraine - about $ 35)."

And in 2020, Gazprom announced that they want to keep the volume of gas transit through Belarus at the level of 2019. The exact numbers were not named there. In 2019, a plan was set to transport 39.29 billion cubic meters to Belarus and in transit. Thus, we can talk about billions of dollars. Especially if the reduction also affects the next year - 2022.

However, Russian analysts consider such a scenario unlikely. After all, the reduction in gas transit through Belarus means the idle capacity that already belongs to Gazprom after the sale of Beltransgaz by the Belarusian authorities.