Russia's Gazprom extends Belarus gas supply, transit deals till 2021

Moscow — Russia's Gazprom said late Tuesday it has extended its gas supply and transit contracts with Belarus until 2021 and signed a protocol on the pricing procedure for gas supplies in January and February.

"Under the documents signed, the contracted volumes for delivery and transit in 2020 will remain at the same level as in 2019," Gazprom said in a statement.

The agreements come after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, failed to reach a final agreement on oil and gas supplies for 2020 by the end of 2019.

Government statements released Tuesday indicated temporary agreements would be signed before the two presidents met after the winter holidays in mid-January to negotiate further.

In mid-December, Russian media quoted Lukashenko as saying that Russia had agreed in principle to supply 20-22 Bcm of gas in 2020.

Gas prices have been a regular bone of contention in recent years, leading to oil and gas supply disruptions in 2004, 2007 and 2010.

--Rosemary Griffin, rosemary.griffin@spglobal.com

--Edited by Jonathan Dart, newsdesk@spglobal.com