BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/12/2006

Gazprom not to decrease gas transit via Belarus-vice premier

MINSK, December 27 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian company Gazprom will not reduce the gas transit via Belarus in 2007, Belarussian First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said.

"Gazprom is unlikely to decrease the volume of deliveries, it understands what it is fraught with. There has been such attempt in Ukraine, and then everything fell back into its place. It is extremely difficult to decrease the transit volumes, as 44 billion cubic metres plus 21 billion cubic metres of gas for Belarus is a huge potential, he told reporters Wednesday.

PRIME-TASS cited Semashko as saying that capacities of underground gas depots in Europe would last for 12-13 days if gas deliveries stopped.

"However, Gazprom does not need such blow to its reputation of a supplier," Semashko said.

He said that Belarus counted on continuing in January or February talks on Gazprom's gas deliveries.

Meetings over founding a joint venture with Belarus' gas transportation company Beltransgaz are to be held in the remaining days of this year.

"I think that the Dutch valuator bank will report on December 27 to us its estimate (of Beltransgaz) that will not be below 5.3 billion dollars," Semashko said.

"It is important that Russia honours its promises. (Russian President) Vladimir Putin had said that the Russian side would acknowledge any estimate of the Dutch bank, and when he was shown it he doubted. Our president, on the contrary, even agreed to decrease the estimate a bit in order to prove that we are able for a compromise. And we want to have for it normal, civilised prices of gas. Regrettably, a compromise is not working out so far," Semashko said.

Putin told reporters after his visit to Minsk on November 28 that negotiations on Beltransgaz's price would continue.

"We shall come to agreement in advance that whatever a price be, we, the Russian and Belarussian sides, will agree," he said.

"I hope that a final decision will be made in the very nearest time, especially in the energy sphere. I mean there is not only an understanding at an expert level, but there is also an accord on ways of coming to the final decision," Putin said.

"These will be also decisions of a market character; we shall proceed to market relations with all our partners without exception."

"We shall capitalise a part of the price in the value of Beltransgaz. Gazprom and Beltransgaz will set up a joint venture - fifty to fifty. But parameters of these accords should be decided at an expert, corporate level," Putin said.

Source:

http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11121340&PageNum=0