BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/12/2006

Gazprom threatens to stop gas supplies to Belarus if no deal

MOSCOW, Dec 27 (Prime-Tass) -- Russian natural gas export monopoly Gazprom will stop its gas supplies to Belarus at 10 a.m. Moscow Time on January 1, 2007 if it fails to conclude a gas supply contract for 2007 with the country, Gazprom's Chief Executive Alexei Miller told reporters Wednesday.

Miller added that Gazprom's talks with Belarus on gas supplies held earlier on Wednesday had yielded no results.

Miller said, however, that Gazprom would fully implement its contracts to transit gas through Belarus to Europe.

Miller also said that Gazprom was planning to ask the Russian government to impose a duty on natural gas exports to Belarus.

The Russian government would get an extra U.S. $1.3 billion annually if the gas export duty were imposed, Miller said.

If Gazprom's gas price for Belarus rises to $200 per 1,000 cubic meters, the imposition of an export duty would further hike the price to $260 per 1,000 cubic meters, he said. Miller did not specify when the price increase to $200 per 1,000 cubic meters might take place.

On Tuesday, Sergei Kupriyanov, chief spokesman for Gazprom, said Tuesday that Belarus had not accepted the gas giant's proposal to hike its gas price to $110 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2007 from the current $46.68 per 1,000 cubic meters.

Miller provided a slightly different figure for the proposed price on Tuesday - $105 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. Under Gazprom's proposal, Belarus would pay $75 in cash and $30 in shares of Belarus' state-controlled gas pipeline monopoly Beltransgaz per 1,000 cubic meters of gas supplied by Gazprom, Miller said.

Gazprom seeks to acquire a 50% Beltransgaz stake and has accepted Belarus' appraisal of the stake at $5 billion.

On Wednesday Kupriyanov said that Belarus was likely to take natural gas transited through Belarus to Europe without authorization from Gazprom.

Source:

http://www.prime-tass.com/news/show.asp?topicid=68&id=412532