BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/04/2006

Russia wants more from Belarus for gas

MOSCOW, April 4 (UPI) -- Russian gas giant Gazprom has said Belarus must pay three times what it now pays for gas from the company.

"We are currently holding talks with the Belarusian side on a switch to market prices from 2007," Aleksandr Ryazanov, deputy chairman of the Gazprom board, told Ekho Moskvy radio on Tuesday. "In my view, this price should be at least three times higher."

Under the current deal, signed in 2005, between the two sides, Belarus pays $50 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, compared with the European market rate of $230 per 1,000 cubic meters.

Critics in Belarus say Gazprom's move is aimed at forcing a speedy sale of Beltranshaz, the Belarusian state company that owns and operates the nation's gas-pipeline network, in which Russia is hoping to win a controlling share.

But Ryazanov says the move is not political.

"This is a reflection of the real economy in which we now live," he told the radio station.

Source:

http://www.upi.com/Energy/view.php?StoryID=20060404-111645-4009r

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