Gas flow through Belarus increases

MINSK, Belarus, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Russian natural gas through the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Poland via Belarus increased substantially since Jan. 1 as a debt row with Ukraine escalates.

Russian gas monopoly Gazprom cut off the supply of gas to Ukraine to pressure Kiev to settle $2 billion in arrears from gas supplies in 2008. Ukraine hosts 80 percent of the Russian natural gas bound for Europe, and a similar row in 2006 disrupted gas supplies to the European Union briefly.

The Belarusian gas company Beltransgaz said transits through Yamal-Europe were up 706 million cubic feet per day, with another 211 million traveling through the Belarusian gas pipeline system, ITAR-TASS said Tuesday.

Beltransgaz said Gazprom ordered the increase in response to the diminished gas transits through Ukraine.

The 2,607-mile Yamal-Europe carries around 3.4 trillion cubic feet of gas across Belarus to Poland. The state-run Polish petroleum and gas mining company said Monday, however, that gas supplies fell by 11 percent after Russia terminated gas deliveries to Ukraine.