BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/12/2006

Disruption looms in Russian gas supplies to Belarus: report

Moscow - Russia's Gazprom looks likely to reduce gas supplies to neighbouring Belarus from January 1, with possible knock-on effects for the European Union, due to a pricing dispute between the two countries, a Russian daily said Monday.

Without a resolution before a January 1 deadline set by Moscow, "in all probability, there will be a repeat of the situation in 2003 when Gazprom reduced the pressure in the pipelines transporting gas to the European Union via Belarus," the Kommersant broadsheet said.

A meeting last Friday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko failed to make progress on the row with Belarus, which lies between Russia and the EU, said Kommersant.

Moscow is demanding a fourfold price increase for Belarus' gas imports -- to 200 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres (35,000 cubic feet) -- although such a steep rise could be averted if Minsk cedes a major stake in Belarus' gas transit infrastructure, observers say.

The European Union has said it is watching the dispute closely. Around 20 per cent of EU gas imports from Russia transit through Belarus.

Supplies to the EU were disrupted by a similar row between Russia and Ukraine at the start of this year.

"Unofficially in the Russian president's administration they are saying that compromise was not reached on even one of" a number of problems discussed at Friday's meeting, Kommersant said.

Agence France Presse

Source:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/read.php?newsid=30021845

Google