Belarus gas pipeline Beltransgaz and Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom have finalized a supplementary agreement to a gas transit contract and may sign it on Wednesday or Thursday, Beltransgaz Chief Executive Officer Vladimir Mayorov said on Monday. "Gazprom has sent its version of the supplementary agreement to the gas transit contract to Beltransgaz. We accepted it and sent it back to them on June 27," Belarusian state-run agency Belta quoted Mayorov as saying. Earlier this month, Belarus and Gazprom were involved in a dispute over Belarus' non-payment for Russian gas with Gazprom slashing deliveries and Minsk threatening to suspend European transit supplies. The size of the fees that Gazprom pays for transit to Beltransgaz became the last stumbling block in the conflict.
The price is usually set in a supplementary agreement and changes in line with Belarus' local gas prices. But no such agreement was signed for 2010 because of a Gazprom-Minsk dispute on whether Belarusian domestic prices had changed. Mayorov also said that a visit of Gazprom officials, planned for June 28, had been canceled as the parties could work and sign the agreement separately.
