Belarus prepared to sign changes to gas agreements with Russia

MINSK. Jan 23 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed an order Thursday approving as the basis for negotiations two draft protocols to amend 2011 intergovernmental gas agreements with Russia.

The government has been authorized to conduct the negotiations on the draft protocols and sign them.

Former Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Alexander Rogozhnik said in early January that the terms for Russian gas supplies to Belarus in 2026 will be no worse than those previously in effect.

He said agreements were reached at the end of December at a meeting that Belarusian Prime Minister Viktor Karankevich and Gazprom Transgaz Belarus CEO Vladimir Maiorov held with the CEO of Russian gas giant Gazprom , Alexei Miller. The parties agreed that "business entities here will work in fairly comfortable conditions for themselves, some sharp increase in rates, naturally, is not expected," Rogozhnik said.

At the end of November, the Belarusian president's chief of staff, Dmitry Krutoi said that Minsk was discussing the terms of gas supplies with Russia under a three-year or five-year contract. The final terms of the new gas supply contract will be determined by the two countries' presidents, he said.

The 2022 price of gas supplies to Belarus remained in effect until the end of December 2025 under agreements reached by the Belarusian and Russian presidents in December 2022. At that time they agreed to leave the price at the 2021 level of $128.52 per 1,000 cubic meters. In April 2022, Belarus switched to paying for gas in Russian rubles.