BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

03/08/2007

Belarus makes first payment in gas spat

MINSK, Belarus, Aug. 3 Belarus on Friday paid Russia's Gazprom $190 million, part of an unpaid bill of $456.16 million for supplies.

"The first tranche, part of the debt amounting to $190 million dollars, was transferred to Gazprom (Friday) at 8:30" a.m., Beltransgaz First Deputy Director General Tsvitamir Sarakhan said. "At the moment, our delegation in Moscow is continuing negotiations on a timeframe for the payment of the remaining sum, as it is technically impossible to transfer the entire amount in one day."

The comments were reported by Interfax-Ukraine.

On Thursday Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the country will reach into its national reserves to pay its debt to Russia for natural gas after Gazprom threatened to nearly halve its exports.

A team from Beltransgaz, the state-owned pipeline company, was in Moscow to meet with officials from Gazprom.

Russia increased the price of gas to Belarus to $100 per 1,000 cubic meters in January, doubling its previous fee though it is less than half what most of Europe pays for Russian gas. Russia allowed Belarus to pay just $55 per 1,000 cubic meters during the first half of 2007, with the remainder due by July 23. After Minsk missed the deadline and was unable to secure a deal with Russia, Moscow said it would cut supplies by 45 percent, sparking concern from Europe.

Europe receives 20 percent of its Russian gas through Belarus, with the rest via Ukraine, which faced a similar price hike a year and a half ago.

Copyright 2007 by UPI

Source:

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/89937.html

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