Supply of Russian gas to Belarus restored, threat to cut transit remains

Release Date: 2010-06-24

Belarus is demanding Russian payments for gas transit on conditions irrelevant to the existing agreement, and is threatening to cut transit, claimed the head of Gazprom Aleksey Miller on Thursday.

Therefore, “the issue [of restoring gas supplies to Belarus] is not fully resolved,” Miller said.

Belarus will wait for the additional payment until 13:00 Minsk Time [11:00 GMT]. If the money is not transferred in full, Belarus will limit the transit in proportion to the missing sum, claimed the First Vice Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko.

On Wednesday and Thursday Belarus was taking gas for itself from transit flows, claimed Miller.

“The fact that Belarus ‘sneaked into the export pipe’ led to the decreasing of the supplies by 20% of the planned amount,” Miller explained. “Today the situation has repeated itself.”

Payment for gas transit through Belarus should be carried out in accordance with the contract, said Vladimir Putin on Thursday at the meeting dedicated to energy issues.

“Agreement obligations concerning both gas prices and transit obligations have to be fulfilled by both parties,” he said, emphasizing that all changes have to be accepted only after bilateral talks.

“We need to have a discussion with the Belarusian party, our Belarusian partners, in a normal, friendly business atmosphere to clear up all the issues, which are debatable, if there is any debate,” Putin added.

Belarus wants to increase the transit rate, but does not fulfill the conditions for it, said Gazprom's spokesperson Sergey Kupriyanov.

“…Gazprom was ready to pay by the old rate, but [our] Belarusian colleagues refused to accept such payment,” Kupriyanov said.

Gazprom paid for transit at the end of last year in exact accordance with the contract, he added, which came to $228 million.

“Gazprom demanded from Beltransgaz an additional $192 million for gas, but Beltransgaz paid $187 million,” Kupriyanov explained. It happened because the Belarusian party was using a different transit rate in their accounts.

Source: Russia Today

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