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Gazprom opposes negotiating Beltranshaz deal and gas supply contract as one package

Gazprom does not consider it necessary to make the signing of a new contract for the supply of natural gas to Belarus dependent on negotiations on the sale of a 50-percent stake in Belarus’ gas pipeline company Beltranshaz to Gazprom, the CEO of the Russian gas giant, Aleksei Miller, told reporters in the Russian Black Sea coastal resort of Sochi on Monday.

According to Mr. Miller, a deal for increasing Gazprom’s stake in Beltranshaz to 100 percent is of a “very, very high degree of readiness.”

The Belarusian government wants the Beltranshaz issue and the issue of gas supply to Belarus to be addressed as one package, but Gazprom believes that these are separate issues and “one shouldn't attempt to put fundamentally different agreements into one document,” Mr. Miller said.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka said last year that Minsk was ready to sell the other 50 percent in Beltranshaz to Gazprom, but in exchange for supplying Belarus with natural gas at Russia’s domestic prices.

Speaking in Minsk in March, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that Russia was interested to buy the stake for $2.5 billion but asked the Belarusian government not to set any additional conditions.

“It is not bad to acquire the stake, but this is unessential,” Mr. Putin said in late May. If Gazprom owns 100 percent of Beltranshaz, it will more confidently invest in the development of Belarus’ gas transport system, he noted.

In February 2010, Gazprom paid the last $625-million installment for a 50-percent stake in Beltranshaz. The Russian government-controlled natural gas monopolist paid a total of $2.5 billion to the Belarusian government for the stake within four years.

Belarus' import of natural gas from Russia has been on the rise in recent years, increasing from 17.6 billion cubic meters in 2009 to 21.6 billion in 2010, according to the National Statistics Committee. This year’s imports are expected to total 22.5 billion cubic meters.

Belarus reportedly bought gas from Gazprom at $193 per 1000 cubic meters in late 2010 and at $223 in the first three months of this year. The price for the second quarter of the year is $244.7, according to First Prime Minister Uladzimir Syamashka.

The government hopes that the price of gas for Belarus will be reduced next year, Mr. Syamashka told reporters in April.

The price of Russian natural gas for Belarus in the next three years is expected to average out at no more than $250 per 1000 cubic meters, said the Russian business newspaper Marker last week with reference to reports compiled for a general meeting of Gazprom’s stockholders, which is scheduled for June 30.

According to the paper, this price level is provided for by a draft 2012-14 gas supply contract. Under the draft contract, Belarus would pledge to purchase from Gazprom no more than 69 billion cubic meters of gas for a total amount of $17,250 million.

“Belarus has thus managed to ensure that the price of Russian gas in the next three years remains at the current level, that is, no higher than $250 per 1000 cubic meters,” the newspaper said.

Belarus currently is not in a position to demand a low gas price, Sergei Agibalov, a senior analyst at Russia’s Energy and Finance Institute, commented to BelaPAN on Monday. “If the Beltranshaz stake is sold for $2.5 billion, this will already mean support of Belarus, as in my opinion, the price is rather high,” he said. “Belarus will hardly get other bonuses.”