BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

07/05/2007

Beltransgaz amends charter setting up JV with Gazprom

MINSK. May 7 (Interfax) - An extraordinary shareholder meeting of Beltransgaz oil shipping company on May 4 approved amendments to the company's charter required for the establishment of a JV with Gazprom (RTS: GAZP), Interfax was told at Beltransgaz.

"Shareholders approved amendments that are necessary for the operation of the new company involving Gazprom. All the amendments were agreed with Gazprom," a Beltransgaz spokesman said.

In addition the meeting approved amendments common to all Belarusian companies given the enforcement of the law on economic entities.

At the end of December 2006 the Belarusian government and Gazprom agreed on the terms for the acquisition by the Russian side of 50% of Beltransgaz (now fully owned by the state) in 2007-2010, with the accepted market evaluation of the company at $5 billion.

In March Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree ordering the Cabinet to sign the deal with Gazprom before June 1. Gazprom will be able to buy 114,644,096 shares (50% of the charter capital) of Beltransgaz for $2.5 billion.

Gazprom's board reached an understanding on the deal with Beltransgaz at the end of April.

Beltransgaz is a monopoly in Belarus in the delivery of natural gas, operating almost 7,000 kilometers of gas pipelines with diameters ranging from 100 mm to 1,400 mm.

Over 60 bcm of natural gas are transported along the pipeline network, about 45 bcm of it in transit. In 2006 Beltransgaz commissioned all the pumping stations on the Belarusian section of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline. The daily volume of transportation at the end of 2006 was 95 mcm.

Source:

http://www.interfax.com/3/268294/news.aspx

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