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Beltranshaz deal expected to be sealed this fall, official says

 

The deal whereby Gazprom would acquire the other 50-percent stake in Beltranshaz is expected to be completed this fall, Heorhiy Kunyatsow, head of the State Property Committee, told reporters in Minsk on Thursday.

“The negotiation process is difficult,” Mr. Kuznyatsow said, explaining that there would be no problem if only a buying and selling contract was negotiated. “But this deal has other conditions attached to it, such as rates and volumes,” he said.

The most difficult thing is to resolve these issues, Mr. Kuznyatsow noted adding that the pace of the negotiation process would depend on an agreement on the issues was reached at the top government level.

After discussing the matter by telephone with Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Uladzimir Syamashka on July 4, Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller announced that talks on the Beltranshaz deal, as well as on new contracts for the supply of natural gas to Belarus and Russian gas transit via the country will be continued in September.

“Given the fact that the talks will continue in the fall, that is, shortly before a new heating season, we’ll have to simultaneously discuss both issues concerning the acquisition by Gazprom of control of Beltranshaz and the conditions of the supply and transit of Russian gas, although we wanted very much to avoid this,” Mr. Miller said. “Unfortunately, the negotiation process has dragged on, and not through our fault. We missed the time when it was possible to settle corporate issues concerning Beltranshaz and then sign the supply and transit contracts as the one-hundred-percent owner of the company.”

Nonetheless, Mr. Miller said, the sides still have every chance of resolving the yet-unsettled issues before the existing gas supply contract expires.

The five-year contract expires on December 31. The Belarusian government warned that it would sell its stake in Beltranshaz to Gazprom only if a new contract, which would be in effect between 2012 and 2014, required the Russian gas monopolist to sell gas to Belarus at Russia's domestic prices.

Mr. Miller said in early June that the possible Beltranshaz deal and gas deliveries to Belarus were separate issues and should not be addressed as one package.

"One shouldn't attempt to put fundamentally different agreements into one document," he said.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka said last year that Minsk was ready to sell the other 50 percent of Beltranshaz to Gazprom, but in exchange for being charged for natural gas at Russia's domestic rates.

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.

The Belarusian government believes that the sale of natural gas to Belarus at Russia's domestic price should be a necessary condition for the remaining 50-percent stake in Beltranshaz to be sold to Gazprom, Mr. Syamashka told reporters on June 7.

Gazprom already holds 50 percent in Beltranshaz, having paid $2.5 billion to the Belarusian government for the stake in equal installments within four years. // BelaPAN