BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

02/08/2007

Gazprom Threatens To Cut Gas Supplies To Belarus By 45 Percent Over Debt

The Russian gas monopoly Gazprom announced on August 1 that it will cut gas supplies to Belarus by 45 percent as of August 3 because of an unpaid gas bill of $456 million for deliveries in the first half of 2007, international news agencies reported. "The daily delivery of gas to Belarus will be reduced approximately by 21 million cubic meters from 10 a.m. on August 3. That is about 45 percent of Belarus's daily consumption. At the same time, the volume of gas transit across Belarusian territory for our customers in third countries will remain the same," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told journalists in Moscow. The announcement comes in the wake of failed Belarusian-Russian intergovernmental talks on the gas-debt repayment and on Minsk's request for a loan of $1.5 billion from Moscow. Gazprom sends one-fifth of its gas exports to Europe via Belarusian pipelines to customers in Poland, Lithuania, and Germany. The European Commission has called on Moscow and Minsk to resolve their gas dispute swiftly. "We take these developments very seriously and we believe [that] both sides [will be able] to resolve the dispute without any delay and to create conditions for the timely resumption of the deliveries," European Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr told journalists in Brussels on August 1. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/08/3-cee/cee-020807.asp

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