Gazprom wants Belarus to pay $75 per 1,000 cubic meters plus $30 in Beltransgaz shares, while Belarus is ready to pay $45 per 1,000 cu m plus $30 in shares of the Belarusian government-owned pipeline company, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said.
Gazprom agreed earlier Tuesday that Beltransgaz, which controls Europe-bound gas pipelines, was valued at $5 billion, the chief executive of the Russian gas monopoly said.
Following a meeting with Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko, Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller said the gas giant was ready to make concessions to Belarus on all issues.
"Considering our partnership in the gas sector, we found it possible to provide Belarus with preferential terms, and we also agreed with the $5 billion estimate of Beltransgaz," Miller said.
On Monday, Gazprom proposed that Belarus pay part of its natural gas price tag with 50% of its shares in Beltransgaz.
"Gazprom is ready to accept part of Belarus's payment for natural gas deliveries in cash - for example, $80 per 1,000 cu m in 2007, while the remainder could be covered with shares in Beltransgaz so that Gazprom would eventually control 50%," Gazprom's spokesman Kupriyanov said.
Gazprom and Beltransgaz have been in talks for several years over a joint venture where the Russian gas monopoly would hold 50% and Belarus the other 50%. But negotiations have stalled over identifying the value of Beltransgaz assets.
After four years of futile negotiations, the two companies hired Dutch-based ABN Amro bank to value the pipeline company, but the bank never publicly revealed the results of its estimate.
Miller also said that "estimates within the currently applied scenario put the maximum value at $3.3 billion."
Gazprom's chief executive said no other ex-Soviet nation enjoyed such preferential treatment. "Armenia pays $110, Ukraine pays $130 for Central Asian gas, Moldova $160 in cash," he said.
Gazprom, which signed three contracts Friday for the supply of 1.1 billion cu m of gas to Georgia in 2007 at $235 per 1,000 cu m, had been pushing for a gas price of $200 per 1,000 cu m for Belarus in 2007 against the current price of $46.68, but media later reported a lesser increase in the price.
"Belarus does not have to pay export duties for Russian gas," Miller said. "If it did, the price for Belarusian consumers on the Russian-Belarusian border would have been $260."
Belarus's contract for Russian gas supplies expires in five days. Miller said that Belarus now held the initiative, and that Gazprom and the Russian government had made concessions on all issues, offering preferential treatment.
Gazprom's spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov quoted Belarusian negotiators Monday as saying that their country would not pay a higher price for Russian gas than the Smolensk Region, a Russian region bordering Belarus, which will pay $54.2 per 1,000 cu m next year.
Gazprom has said the current gas price for Belarus does not even cover production and transportation costs.
Beltransgaz, a 100% government-owned company, is a gas supply and transportation monopoly on Belarusian territory. Russian gas is pumped across Belarus through the Yamal-Europe pipeline, and Gazprom, which is currently building a direct pipeline to Germany across the Baltic seabed, has said it would consider building a second leg of the pipeline.
Kupriyanov has said the new price for Belarus reflected the company's strategy to apply market mechanisms to pricing gas in its trade with former Soviet republics, adding that Gazprom would like to bring its CIS prices in line with the average price for Western European exports of $250 per 1,000 cubic meters.
