Belarus to pay for gas $171.5

Gazprom has announced the average annual price for gas for Belarus and told about the plans of cotrol over Beltrasgaz.

The average annual price for gas for Belarus in 2010 is to make $171.5 per 1,000 cubic metres. As informed by BelaPAN, it had been told by Deputy Chairman of Gazprom's Management Committee Andrey Kruglov to journalists in Minsk.

"Proceeding from the previous agreements, when calculating the price for gas a decreasing coefficient 0.9 is used. It means that the average annual gas price for Belarus would be $171.5," he said. "We expect that payments would be made basing upon this price".

For comparison: in 2009 an annual price for gas was $148-150 per 1,000 cu m. Such figures were quoted by Beltransgaz director general Uladzimir Mayorau (Vladimir Majorov).

Kruglov told that indebtedness of Belarus for gas for today is 94 billion 500 thousand dollars. This indebtedness was formed in 2010. Problems with settling obligations, as said by him, started in the second half of 2009, but by the end of December last year's indebtedness had been paid off.

Касаясь корпоративной политики компании, он подчеркнул, что «Газпром» заинтересован в получении контрольного пакета акций ОАО «Белтрансгаз».

Touching upon the corpotare policy of the company, he underlined that Gazprom is interested in recieving the controlling block of stocks in Beltransgaz.