BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

03/08/2007

Chavez helps prevent European gas row

MINSK, Belarus, Aug. 3 Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez is helping to prevent a new gas price row in Europe.

Earlier this week, headlines heralded a new gas price row in Eastern Europe after Russia threatened to by Friday halve gas deliveries to Belarus if it didn't pay bills amounting to $456 million.

While state-controlled Russian energy giant Gazprom vowed that deliveries to Western Europe wouldn't be affected, observers in Europe, especially in Germany, were worried, as roughly one-fifth of Germany's oil imports flow through the affected pipeline.

On Thursday, however, Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, told Russian agency RIA Novosti that he had advised the government to take the money transfer from Belarus' reserve and transfer it to Russia within the next days.

"Our reserve fund will be emptied, but other countries are ready to help us, including (Venezuelan President Hugo) Chavez and foreign commercial banks," Lukashenko said, according to RIA Novosti.

Earlier this year, Russia doubled the gas price for Belarus to $100 per 1,000 cubic meters. While the current price still is only half what Europe pays, the move dealt a heavy blow to Belarus, which relies on cheap energy from Russia to fuel its economy.

Source:

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/89961.html