BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

01/01/2007

European Union hails Russia-Belarus natural gas agreement

BRUSSELS, January 1 (RIA Novosti) - The European Union hails an agreement on Russian natural gas deliveries to Belarus reached late Sunday night, a EU spokeswoman said Monday.

Russia and Belarus signed December 31 a contract on Russian natural gas deliveries to Belarus and on gas transit via its territory to Europe two minutes before the New Year ending a long-running dispute over natural gas prices.

Emma Udwin said the European Union was glad with the reached agreement and that natural gas supplies to Europe will be uninterrupted.

Last week Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] CEO Alexei Miller said the state-controlled Russian natural gas monopoly will cutoff supplies to Belarus January 1, 2007 if no new agreement is signed by that time raising suspicions that Europe will fall short of gas supplies transited via a pipeline across Belarus, particularly to Poland and Germany.

The dispute with Belarus was reminiscent of a gas spat with Ukraine early last year when Russia briefly suspended gas supplies, affecting consumers in Europe.

Gazprom agreed with Belarus to supply natural gas to the ex-Soviet state at a price of $100 in the next five years and to buy out 50% of Belarusian gas pipeline operator Beltransgaz shares, worth $2.5 billion, within the next four years.

Source:

http://en.rian.ru/world/20070101/58262001.html