BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

09/06/2006

Belarus negotiates selling of gas company

MINSK, Russia, June 9 (UPI) -- President Aleksander Lukashenko said Thursday he would not sell Beltranshaz unless Belarus was allowed to develop hydrocarbons deposits in Russia.

He said while meeting with the governor of Russia's Altay Territory, Aleksandr Karlin, that he would not sell state-owned gas distributor Beltranshaz at a "balance sheet value," unless it could develop hydrocarbon deposits, Charter-97 Web site reported.

He said Russia was endangering the implementation of agreements on the creation of equitable operating conditions for economic entities of both countries.

The Belarus president said he did not object to paying higher gas prices provided a similar price is quoted for the economic entities of the union states. Belarus pays 1.5 times more than other companies in Smolensk.

Lukashenko added that he was not expecting any preferences from Russia.

"In the realm of economy, we would like to operate as a single country," he said.

Source:

http://www.upi.com/Energy/view.php?StoryID=20060609-030939-6181r