Official representative of Gazprom, Sergei Kupriyanov, commented on the demand of the President of Belarus to pay 32 million dollars extra to sink the debt for gas transit. According to the spokesman of Russian gas holding company, under the current contract Gazprom owes nothing to Belarus, addendum to it will be signed in near future.
«Under the existing contract for the supply and transit of gas on December 31, 2006, Gazprom owes nothing to Belarus. And under addendum to the contract for 2010 we and our Belarusian colleagues have agreed in principle and expect to sign it as soon as possible», RIA Novosti quotes Sergei Kupriyanov.
As Telegraf previously reported, in Gazprom they affirm that under the current contract, Belarus may increase the rate of transit up to 1.88 dollars for pumping one thousand cubic meters of gas per one hundred kilometers only with a simultaneous increase in wholesale prices of «blue fuel» for Belarusian consumers.
To the moment, Gazprom has paid off the debt to Belarus for gas transit of 228 million dollars, but Minsk thinks that Russia should pay 260 million dollars (basing on the pumping rate of 1.88 dollar). On June 25, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, gave Gazprom two days to repay the rest of the debt and promised, otherwise to block fully the transit of Russian gas and oil to Europe. Gazprom does not acknowledge the existence of the rest of the debt.
