BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

06/08/2007

Belarus transfers part of Gazprom debt

MOSCOW - Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly will not cut gas supplies to its former Soviet neighbor Belarus after Minsk paid a "significant part" of a $456 million gas debt before a Friday morning deadline, the national gas monopoly said.

"Today we received a payment document, according to which Belarus paid a significant part of the debt to Gazprom," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kuprianov said in televised comments. "Thus, we see real steps by the Belarusian side to resolve the debt problem. Today, a decision was taken not to limit supplies to Belarus. We expect full payment within a week."

Gazprom's threat had sparked fears Belarus could siphon gas from pipelines, taking 20 percent of Russia's gas exports to Europe, and rekindled bitter memories of Gazprom's past disputes with Ukraine and Belarus.

The current standoff grows out of a deal signed in the last minutes of 2006 that obliged Belarus to pay $100 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, instead of $46.

In a speech Friday to businessmen during the ASEAN regional forum in Manila, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reassured his audience that Russia was a reliable energy supplier.

Russia guaranteed energy supplies "to every country, not only friends or allies," he said.

Source:

http://www.onelocalnews.com/chandlernews-dispatch/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=143221