MOSCOW, September 1 (Itar-Tass) — Russia’s gas giant Gazprom said on Thursday it will sign a new contract on gas export and transit with Belarus in early December.
According to the company’s press service, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller met with Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko in Gazprom’s central office in Moscow.
“Under the agreements reached in July the parties resumed the talks on the supply and transit of Russia’s natural gas,” the press service said. “The talks have been underway taking into account Russia and Belarus’s accession to the common economic space.”
“The parameters of the new contract will be interlinked with the finalization of Gazprom’s purchase of a 50 percent stake in Beltransgaz,” the press service said.
On December 31, 2006, Gazprom and Beltransgaz signed a gas export and transit contract for 2007-2011. As of January 1, 2008, the document, in particular, sets a pricing formula for Belarus that is used to price gas exports to Europe as well as decreasing price coefficients for 2008-2010 (0.67, 0.8 and 0.9 respectively).
In August 2011 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin instructed the Energy Ministry and Gazprom to define a decreasing price coefficient for gas exports to Belarus beginning from 2012.
Gazprom owns a 50 percent stake in Belarus’ national gas supplier Beltransgaz.