Transit Of Gas Through Belarus Reduced By Almost Fourfold

What does it mean for the country's budget?

Russian Gazprom has reduced gas deliveries to the European Union via Belarus by 70%.

Exports through our country went down from 112 million cubic meters on September 26 to only 30 million cubic meters on October 3, reports telegraf.by.

A significant reduction in transit volumes means that Belarus' income from transit will be several times less. However, no amounts have been officially announced.

Previously, analyst of information-analytical agency RUPEC Aliaksandr Sabko said that "the Polish-Belarusian direction has always been cheaper, because it has a shorter route and a fairly low price of transit - $7 per thousand cubic meters (about $35 through the Ukraine).

In 2020, Gazprom said it wanted to keep the volume of gas transit through Belarus at the level of 2019. They didn't specify the exact figures. In 2019, a total of 39.29 billion cubic meters was planned to be sent to Belarus and transited. Thus, we may be talking about billions of dollars. Especially if the reduction also concerns the next year - 2022.

However, Russian analysts consider such a scenario unlikely. In fact, a reduction in gas transit through Belarus means a standstill of capacities, which are already owned by Gazprom after the sale of Beltransgaz by the Belarusian authorities.