On Thursday, Russia stopped supplying gas to Belarus for several hours

The Belarusian side signed an additional contract for gas supply in the amount of 360 million cubic meters, RIA Novosti was told on Thursday evening at Trans Naft CJSC.

This is enough to meet the needs of Belarus for 5-6 days.

In this regard, Gazprom today will restore the transportation of gas to Belarus in full, so far for this period.

Recall that in the evening Gazprom made a statement that the supply of Russian gas to Belarus on Thursday was completely discontinued.

As the Gazprom press secretary Sergey Kupriyanov told the gas information agency, "GAZ was transported to Belarus only to the amount of transit."

The reason for the termination of supplies, he called the end of the action of all contracts for the purchase of gas by Belarus.

Gazprom transports gas to Belarus.

On Thursday, the last gas supplier for Belarusian consumers - Trans Nafta stopped supplying gas to Belarus.

“Trans Nafta” under the Agreement of December 10, 2003 with Baltransgaz OJSC was supposed to deliver up to 2 billion cubic meters of gas in 2004. Including it was planned to put 500 million cubic meters in January, in February - 300 million cubic meters of gas.

In accordance with the additional agreements signed by the supply, the supply of delivery in January was increased to 1.26 billion cubic meters and in February the supply of up to 200 million cubic meters was agreed. The company fulfilled these obligations.

At the end of last week, February 8, another gas supplier to Belarus - NGK "Iter" completed the fulfillment of its contract obligations.

Gazprom since January 1, 2004 does not supply gas to the republic.

According to Alexander Ryazanov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Gazprom, "Our negotiations on gas supplies to Belarus and its transit in the republic do not advance either a step. The Belarusian side continues to insist at the non -residential price of supplies - below the actual cost. But why Gazprom should work at a loss, it is not clear to us."

In addition to the reluctance of Belarusians to pay a market price for gas, Ryazanov also mentioned the continued conflict of Beltransgaz with the Russian monopoly. The Belarusian company violated the agreement on debt restructuring. The agreement was signed in December 2003, but today Belarus has expired payments by almost $ 6 million.

Through Belarus, the transit of Russian gas is carried out to the Kaliningrad region, the Baltic states, Poland, Germany, so it is impossible to simply disable Belarus from the "pipe". Ryazanov claims that Gazprom is ready to sign a transit contract, but the Belarusian side does not go to sign and tries to use the fact of the lack of a contract in negotiations. "

Meanwhile, in Minsk they expressed bewilderment in connection with the current decision of the Russian side on the complete cessation of gas supplies to Belarus.

As the head of the Commission on Monetary Policy and Banking Activities of the Lower Chamber of the Belarusian Parliament, the deputy head of the commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia, Alexei Vaganov, stated in an interfax.

"Applications for the complete termination of gas supplies by the Russian side are perplexed," the deputy said.

"I was present at a meeting of the Union Council of Ministers, when the Russian prime minister ordered the issues that arose in the gas field within two weeks and sign the fuel and energy balance," Vaganov said. According to him, the parties did not fully agree "only the volume of gas supply."

In turn, the leadership of Baltransgaz OJSC claims that Belarus will be provided with gas in full.

“Nothing happened. Belarusian will be provided with gas and heat in full,” the general director of Beltransgaz OJSC Petr Peter said on Thursday evening. He noted that the process of concluding subsequent agreements with independent gas suppliers "is in negotiations."

The acting Minister of Energy of Belarus Eduard Tovpenets refused to comment on the situation with gas supplies in Belarus, noting only that "in the houses of Belarusians, the lights are also burning warm batteries."