BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
08/08/2007
Belarus makes final gas payment to Russia, Europe flow continues
Minsk - Belarus on Wednesday made its final payment to Russia for already-imported natural gas, ending threat of a reduction of energy supplies to Europe that had been looming, the Belapan news agency reported.
The former Soviet republic transferred 60 million dollars to the Russian natural gas monopolist Gazprom, which had threatened to reduce volumes to Belarus by 55 per cent, in retaliation for Belarus' failure to pay in full for gas delivered from January to June 2007.
Belarus had, until a series of August cash transfers to Gazprom, paid for only 45 per cent of gas bought from Gazprom.
The dispute had carried the potential of spiking natural gas prices in Europe, as much of Europe's gas imports from Russia move through Belarusian pipelines.
Belarus had already paid two earlier instalments over the last week. The total outstanding debt had been 464 million dollars.
Aleksander Lukashenko, Belarus' authoritarian leader, said his government found the cash to pay off the bill using a combination of hard currency and gold reserves, and credit offers from Venezuela and western loan agencies.
c 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
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