Gas bills settled, supplies to Belarus resumed

The Kremlin said Thursday that Russia had completely restored the flow of natural gas to Belarus after the country settled its debt of nearly $200 million in unpaid energy deliveries. Belarus said that it in turn had received payment from Gazprom, which uses pipelines across Belarus to pump gas to third countries.

Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov said gas supplies would be resumed in full at 1000 local time (0600 GMT).

European officials on Wednesday accused Belarus of restricting energy supplies through its territory in what one official described as an “attack” on the European Union.

Belarus restricted natural gas supplies flowing into neighboring Lithuania, a European Union member, by at least 40 percent, the official, Günther Oettinger, the European Commissioner for Energy, said.

“We have an expectation that this crisis and these politics between Russia and Belarus should not come to Europe,” Mr. Oettinger said in Brussels. “This is not only a problem for this one member state; it’s a problem, it’s an attack against the whole European Union.”

Lithuania receives all of its gas through Belarusian pipelines. Lithuania’s national gas firm, Lietuvos Dujos, issued a statement saying the cuts would not hinder supplies to Lithuanian customers but could lead to gas reductions in Kaliningrad, an island of Russian territory cut off from the mainland that also depends on Russian gas piped through Belarus.

Poland and Germany also rely partly on supplies from Belarus. Poland reported a slight dip in gas deliveries on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Germany was unaffected.

European officials have maintained that any gas shutoffs through Belarus would have little effect because of low summertime energy consumption. But the conflict has raised questions about Russia’s ability to reliably deliver gas to its customers in the European Union, just as Moscow has been seeking to boost its image as a dependable business partner in the West.

Throughout the four-day dispute with Belarus, Gazprom officials have issued statements attempting to reassure Europe that gas would continue to flow. Ukraine agreed to begin pumping additional gas through its pipelines into Europe should Belarus continue to cut supplies.

That option remains open to Gazprom.

Russia increased the price of gas supplied to Belarus from $150 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas last year, to $169.20 in the first quarter of 2010 and $184.80 in the second.

But Belarus had continued to pay at $150.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Belarus was still getting its gas cheaply.

"I would like to point out that the Belarusian partners are receiving Russian natural gas at the lowest possible price. No consumers of Russian gas enjoy prices lower than that," he said.

Russia supplies about a quarter of the gas consumed in the EU, and 42% of the EU's gas imports.

About 80% of Russian gas bound for European countries goes via Ukraine.