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Russia's Gazprom has demanded that Belarusian gas transporter Beltransgaz pay $230 million in debt for gas supplied in January-April 2009, Andrei Kuznetsov, the counselor for economic affairs at the Russian embassy to Belarus, told Interfax.

"Gazprom sent a letter to Beltransgaz demanding the payment of the debt for supplies in January-April. The debt without penalties and fines for not utilizing the contracted gas volumes amounts to slightly more than $230 million," Kuznetsov said.

This sum is the difference between the contracted price of supplies in January-April and de-facto payments by the Belarusian side, he said.

"In the letter, Gazprom draws Beltransgaz's attention to the need to pay for gas supplies in May on time, before June 23, and in full," the diplomat said.

"Now the issue is about the core debt of the Belarusian side," Kuznetsov said, commenting on penalties and fines mentioned in the letter.

Kuznetsov said on Monday, June 15, that Russia could file a lawsuit against Beltransgaz for failing to make payments in full for gas delivered in the first quarter of 2009. Under an oral agreement reached by the leaders of the two countries, Belarus paid an average price of about $150 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas in the first quarter of 2009, while the contracted price for this period was $210 per 1,000 cubic meters, he said. At the same time, he said "these agreements were never drawn up legally in any way." He added that Gazprom paid $250 million for the transit of gas through Belarus in an effort to compensate for the increase in actual prices over the average annual advance.

According to the Belarusian Statistics Agency, Belarus imported 4.853 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas in January-April 2009, down 38.2% from the same period of 2008. The average price for the imported gas was $198 per 1,000 cubic meters in the period, up 61.2% from a year earlier.

Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said recently that Belarus fully met its commitments on gas payments in the first quarter of 2009 based on a price of $150 per 1,000 cubic meters. Based on the pricing formula, the gas price for Belarus should be $147.2 per 1,000 cubic meters in the second quarter of 2009 and $102-$103 starting from July 1.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin publicly confirmed the agreement with Belarus on gas payments at an average annual price during a meeting of the Russian-Belarusian Union State council in Minsk on May 28.

Under the union's fuel and energy plan for 2009, Belarus should buy 22.1 bcm of gas compared to the 21.1 bcm it received in 2008.