Gazprom and Belarus remain deadlocked over gas agreement

Dec 31, 2006, 18:33 GMT

Moscow - Belarus's chief negotiator, Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko, arrived in Moscow Sunday for talks aimed at the ending the dispute with Russia over natural gas pricing, the spokesman for Russian gas monopolist Gazprom confirmed.

Gazprom would be making every effort to make a deal before the end-of-year deadline expired, Sergei Kuprianov told the television channel, Westi-24.

Russia and Belarus have been at loggerheads for weeks in a dispute over how much Belarus should pay Gazprom for natural gas supplies and how much Gazprom should pay Belarus for shipping Russia gas across Belarus to Europe.

Russia, which wanted to double the price of gas supplies to Belarus, has threatened to cut off all gas supplies to Belarus as of January 1, if a deal is not reached.

That threat if put into effect could deprive Europe of 20 per cent of its Russian natural gas imports.

Semashko, said in Minsk on Saturday evening that the former Soviet state had agreed to pay 100 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres for gas from Russia next year.

Belarus would also transfer half of its state-controlled Beltransgaz pipeline network to Gazprom for 2.5 billion dollars.

Kuprianov said that this was the Belarusian position, but no deal had been reached.

Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister, Eduard Tovpenets, arrived in Moscow Friday for the negotiations.

Kuprianov had said Saturday that an agreement could not be expected until Belarus sent Semashko to the talks.