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President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said the world has enough gas and the republic could find a replacement for Russian gas. The corresponding statement was made during a working trip of the Belarusian leader to the Grodno region.

“Thank God, there is enough oil in the world – take it, I don’t want it. And the prices are reasonable. And there is already enough natural gas, there is a fight for the premium European and our market between the main players supply-ing natural gas. And there is an alternative, you can find it,” Lukashenko told Andrei Rybakov, Chairman of the Belneftekhim State Concern.

Belarus insists on the need to revise the price of Russian gas for Belarus for 2020 to determine its “correct and fair level”; the talks on this issue between the Belarusian Energy Ministry and Gazprom and the Russian Energy Minis-try are underway. Earlier, Lukashenko said that under current conditions, the price of Russian gas for the republic should be $ 40-45 per thousand cubic me-ters, taking into account logistics, but certainly not $127, as it is paid now.

Earlier ORIENT informed, except Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan are de-manding that Russia reduces prices for purchased natural gas.

At the same time, according to the forecast of the International Energy Agency, until 2025, Russia can improve its status as the main exporter of gas in the world. According to agency data, Russia will share one-fifth of the global gas supply between 2019 and 2025.

In particular, a number of experts believe that Russia can benefit from the cri-sis in the global gas market. Igor Yushkov, Professor at Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, and leading expert at the Na-tional Energy Security Fund, stands same position.

Igor Yushkov believes that due to gas prices reduce, which is likely to last until the end of 2020, LNG suppliers, the main competitors of Russian pipeline gas, will suffer the most. In this situation, Gazprom has more opportunities to pass over unfavorable period.

Nury AMANOV