Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom can reroute its gas transit to Europe from Belarus to Ukraine if necessary, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday.
Gazprom said it was looking for alternative transit options for gas supplies to Europe, including via Ukraine and Poland, as it cut deliveries to Belarus over a shortfall in payments.
"If need be, we can reroute gas transit to other routes, for instance, to the Ukrainian gas transmission network," Putin said, adding that Ukraine transits 105 billion cubic meters of gas every year.
"We can transit 120, 130 [billion cubic meters] and more," he said.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said earlier on Monday that the Russian energy giant had started cutting gas supplies to Belarus over the debt, which has reached $200 million. The cuts will gradually rise from 15 to 85 percent of daily supply.
Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said earlier on Monday there should be no problems with gas transit to Europe and that Gazprom expected Belarus to honor its transit commitments and pay off its outstanding debt.
Kupriyanov said Gazprom hoped the latest dispute with Belarus would not be as "serious" or "long-drawn out" as last year's with Ukraine.
Negotiations are continuing on the issue of repayments, and Belarusian First Deputy Energy Minister Eduard Tovpinets said on Friday that Gazprom owed some $200 million to Belarus for gas transit fees to Europe.
Kupriyanov said Gazprom's transit debt only existed because Minsk did not permit Gazprom to offset it.
Ukraine's energy company Naftogaz said on Monday it was ready to increase Russian gas transit to Europe if the gas dispute between Russia and Belarus was not resolved soon.
Ukrtransgas, a Naftogaz subsidiary, said it had received a request from Gazprom Export to come up with alternative methods for gas transit.
The Belarusian Energy Ministry said earlier on Monday Belarus would continue to provide uninterrupted transit of Russian gas to Europe.
A spokeswoman for the Lithuanian gas supplier Lietuvos dujos company said there was no interruption in Russian gas supplies to Lithuania, which transit Belarus.
Putin urged the government to speed up the construction of an underground gas storage facility in Kaliningrad Region, a Russian exclave that gets its gas via Belarus.
"This facility should be up and running in late 2011 - early 2012," Putin told the inner cabinet.
Belarus has refused to pay higher prices this year, which increased to $169 per 1,000 cubic meters for the first quarter and $185 for the second quarter, and has continued to pay last year's rate of $150 instead.
MOSCOW, June 21 (RIA Novosti)
