Belarus revives Russia energy feud with transit cut threat

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MINSK, June 25 (AFP): Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko Friday revived an energy feud with Moscow, warning he would halt Russia's Europe-bound oil and gas transit within two days if Moscow did not pay a debt.
Lukashenko also raised the stakes in the convoluted energy spat by explicitly warning for the first time that Belarus would cut off oil supplies as well as gas deliveries to Europe.
"I once again warn the government: Gazprom's failure to fully pay for services in the next days must lead to a halt of any services on the shipment of hydrocarbons -- both oil and gas -- for Russia," Lukashenko was quoted as saying by his office.
On Thursday, Russian gas giant Gazprom paid Belarus 228 million dollars in gas transit fees, but Belarus insists the Russian gas firm owes it a total of 260 million dollars.
Gazprom quickly issued a terse statement after Lukashenko's threat, denying it owed Belarus further payment.
"Gazprom does not owe anything to Belarus according to the conditions of the current contract," it said.
But it added there was an agreement in principle on an "addendum to the contract for 2010" and the two companies planned to sign it "in the near future", signalling it may pay a higher transit fee.
Lukashenko's statement came after the two ex-Soviet neighbors took major steps Thursday to put to rest a four-day energy feud that sparked a brief interruption of gas supplies via Belarus to Europe.
The dispute flared Monday when Russia reduced gas supplies to Belarus over a debt of nearly 200 million dollars. After an initial cut of 15 percent, Gazprom ramped up reductions to 60 percent on Wednesday.