The signing of an agreement on the sale of 50 percent of shares in Beltranshaz [Belarusian state-owned gas pipeline operator] that had been scheduled for Thursday has been postponed.
"Negotiations with Gazprom representatives will continue in Minsk to agree some aspects of the agreement," Andrey Zhukaw, an assistant to the Belarusian energy minister, has told an ITAR-TASS correspondent.
He said that a deputy chairman of the board of Gazprom, Valeriy Golubev, has arrived in Minsk to told talks on the issue. Zhukaw noted that the signing of a package of documents on the setting up of a Belarusian-Russian joint gas transport organization based on Beltranshaz will be held within the planned time frame - by June 1.
An ITAR-TASS correspondent has been told by Belarusian government staff that the need has arisen to hold additional consultations to agree on one of the sub-clauses in the agreement on the sale a Beltranshaz stake to Gazprom.
The government representatives made it clear that the documents will be signed by June 1 anyway. This deadline for the establishment of a joint venture was set in the framework protocol that was signed by the Belarusian government and Gazprom on the night of December 31, 2006/January 1, 2007.
(ITAR-TASS, 18/05/2007)