Gazprom Will Leave Belarus without Gas

Gazprom has officially entered into the same situation with Belarus as occurred with Ukraine last year. The monopoly has warned that the contract to supply that country with gas expires on December 31, and called its negotiating position irresponsible. Both Gazprom and Russian authorities had been saying that the two sides would be able to reach an agreement. However, they prepared themselves in advance for the shutoff of the Belarusian gas by stocking up the needed volumes of gas in German and Baltic reservoirs.

Yesterday evening, Gazprom official representative Sergey Kupriyanov disavowed the assurances given by both sides that an agreement would be reached by yearend and announced a firm position.
“The current contract for supplies of natural gas to Belarus expires in six days. Belarus’s negotiating position is irresponsible and threatens the country’s energy supply,” he told information agencies and Kommersant. Somewhat later, the state ITAR-TASS news agency indicated directly, citing a high-placed Gazprom source that “the Belarusian side is placing Russian gas supplies to it under threat as of January 1, 2007.” Thus Gazprom has begun preparations to turn off the gas to Belarus, as it did to Ukraine on January 1 of this year.

Kommersant