BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

12/10/2007

Lukashenko offers Russia free 5-year transit on new gas pipeline

( Itar-Tass ) - Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko offered to Russia a free five-year transit along a new line of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, if this line is built.

"The second line of the gas pipeline should be built immediately, if you are afraid that it will be expensive we will provide for you a free gas transit via Belarus for the next five years," Lukashenko told a press conference with regional Russian media on Friday.

Lukashenko noted he believes "inexpedient in financial terms" the projects of building a gas pipeline on the Baltic Sea bottom and an oil pipeline bypassing Belarus. "You came up not only with the sea bottom now, but also with mines and bombs of the World War Two times, so why to lay down a gas pipeline along the mine field?" Lukashenko pointed out. According to him, the construction of the second line of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline is much more profitable.

Speaking on Russia's plans to build an oil pipeline (from Bryansk to the North) bypassing Belarus and therefore refusing to use the Druzhba oil pipeline, Lukashenko said, "We calculated that every tonne of oil will cost 30 dollars more in this case. Which company, if it is not stifled, will choose this route instead of the already built pipe." Meanwhile, he added, "If even Belarussians lose more than 100 million dollars from oil transit, they will overcome it (we have about 100 billion dollars of GDP), but Russia will lose annually about two billion dollars pumping oil along the bypass route."

Source:

http://news.trendaz.com/cgi-bin/readnews2.pl?newsId=1043528&lang=EN