BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

02/08/2007

Gazprom to halve gas to Belarus

Russia's gas exports monopoly Gazprom will almost halve supplies to Belarus from Friday after failing to reach a deal with Minsk over a $456 million energy debt, Gazprom said on Wednesday.

The world's largest gas producer, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas, reassured the rest of Europe it would continue to pump gas exports across Belarus. It said it planned to notify its customers in over 20 European countries about the move. "We will cut supplies by 45 percent but fully maintain our transit supplies to Europe via Belarus," Gazprom's spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told Reuters. "Belarus has so far offered nothing to resolve the debt issue, which we consider a violation of our previous agreements. They have the money to pay back the debt and we do not understand why they don't want to do it," he added. The statement echoed previous disputes between Russia and its neighbours, Belarus and Ukraine. During previous disputes, Gazprom repeatedly accused Belarus and Ukraine of siphoning off gas from its transit pipelines. Both denied stealing gas but they also argued they could not cut supplies to the population during cold winter months.

Source:

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=118301