Belarus-Russia single gas market may start operating from 2022

Belarus Ambassador to Russia Vladimir Semashko said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper that he expects that the single gas market of the two countries will start operating on January 1, 2022, Report informs referring to the newspaper’s website.

“The gas pipe runs across Russia and Belarus, the entire infrastructure has been created,” Semashko told the newspaper.

Moreover, the ambassador noted that the creation of a united energy system of the two countries is being discussed.

“The same working conditions should be created, the cost of a kilowatt/hour, and, accordingly, transmission tariffs, etc., but at first it seems that authorized operators of the Belarusian and Russian systems should be determined. These trades must proceed as wholesale, through the section on the Russian-Belarus border. Those power lines, which are, for example, between Smolensk and Belarus, allow passing somewhere 7-8 billion kilowatt/hour. The process of creating a unified energy system of Russia and Belarus will be held in parallel,” the ambassador explained.

According to his forecasts, at the first stage, the market will be unified within 3-4 years.