Gas Supplies And Its Transit Through Belarus Stopped Completely :: Charter'97 :: News

Russia’s gas holding Gazprom has stopped gas supplies to Belarus. “Russia gas supplies to Belarus stopped at 18:00,” Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told Itar-Tass. He said, “The decision has to be made by the Belarussian side.”

Gazprom reduced gas supplies to Belarus at 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Wednesday after an appeal from an independent supplier, Trans Nafta, which had said that Belarus had received the agreed-upon amount of gas and that no new contracts for further supplies had been signed.

Belarus was recommended to urgently sign such contracts. Instead Beltransgaz began siphoning Russian gas supplied to third countries through Belarus. As a result, Gazprom stopped gas exports to Poland and Lithuania through Belarus. “These countries receive Russian fuel by other routes, particularly through Ukraine,” Kupriyanov said. The spokesman explained such a radical step on the part of Gazprom by the fact that “The Belarussian state-owned company Beltransgaz has not fulfilled all of its transit obligations.”

After abortive negotiations on a new gas supply agreement, Gazprom stopped gas supplies to Belarus from its own reserves from January 1, 2004. Under the previous agreement, Gazprom supplied gas to Belarus at internal Russian prices. However now Gazprom insists on 50 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic metres. But Belarus is ready to pay 41 U.S. dollars. On Monday, a new round of talks was held in Moscow between Gazprom and Beltransgaz CEOs, Alexei Miller and Pyotr Petukhov. No results were announced.

Russia’s largest independent gas supplier ITERA stopped gas supplies to Belarus on February 12. “On February 5, we sent our proposals to Beltransgaz but there has been no reply so far,” the company told Itar-Tass. Until recently gas was supplied to Belarus only by Trans Nafta.

Trans Nafta director Vladimir Kondrachuk told Itar-Tass, “We are ready to supply fuel at the previous price of 46.68 U.S. dollar per 1,000 cubic meters.” “Our only request is that the Belarussian side should pay at least part of the January debt to our company,” he said.

In January, Beltransgaz’s debt to the Russian concern totaled 16.7 million dollars and in February – 26 million dollars. Trans Nafta has lowered the price almost by two U.S. dollars “in order not to give the issue a political tinge”.

Belarus will feel the consequences of Gazprom’s decision by Thursday morning, Kondratyuk said. He said Minsk had notified Gazprom that Beltransgaz did not bear any responsibility for the transit of Russian gas through Belarus. “This is a very dangerous step on the part of the Belarussian side. As a result, not only heat supplies to apartments may be stopped but problems may arise at continuous-cycle enterprises that need constant gas supplies,” he warned.