MOSCOW, November 5. /TASS/. Forming a joint oil and gas market is one of the most important areas of cooperation between Russia and Belarus within the Union State. The unified market allows Minsk to receive gas at a price several times less than on the European spot market, the Union State’s State Secretary, Dmitry Mezentsev told TASS on Thursday.
"Interaction in the energy sector, common approaches of the parties to the formation of gas and oil markets are one of the fundamental provisions in cooperation on the economic integration agenda. <...> Our fraternal cooperation was reaffirmed, in particular by establishing a preferential price of gas, which is supplied to the republic of Belarus," the Secretary of State of the Union State said.
As Mezentsev stressed, in his speech at a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that "the price of gas for Belarus is five, seven, even nine to ten times lower than in the case of gas sales to consumers under spot contracts in European countries."
"Such conditions of cooperation in the energy sector provide Belarus with competitive advantages, which also determines the competitiveness of its industrial and agricultural products. This is a significant example of the success of our partnership and interaction," the State Secretary of the Union State stressed.
Formation of single gas market
On Thursday, at an online meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree approving 28 integration programs with Russia. Prior to that, the document was signed by Putin. These 28 documents are primarily devoted to economic integration.
During the meeting Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko said that Minsk and Moscow will develop principles for the formation of a unified gas market by July 2022. According to him, the two countries will have to form joint markets for oil, oil products, electricity and gas. By July 2022, the principles for the functioning of the unified gas market should be developed, and by December 1, 2023, taking into account these principles, the corresponding additions to the union program should be signed.