GAS SUPPLIES TO ARMENIA STOPPED BY PIPELINE BREAK

DPA
monstersandcritics.com
Jan 9, 2009, 15:03 GMT

Moscow/Tbilisi – Russian gas deliveries to Armenia broke off Friday
when a pipeline ruptured in southern Georgia, Georgia’s energy
minister said.

‘The gas pipeline has been damaged and the gas leak is significant
so this morning we fully suspended gas transit to Armenia,’ Alexandre
Khetaguri was quoted by local media as saying.

In a televised statement, he said it would take at least five days
to complete repair work and resume supplies, adding Armenia should
pull from its gas reserves.

Russia’s Gazprom state gas monopoly voiced concern over the disruption
in supplies and called for a quick normalization of the situation.

‘It is not clear to us what happened there and why emergency work
must take place during the height of winter,’ a spokesman for the
company said Friday, news agency Interfax reported.

Russia and Georgia cutoff diplomatic ties since they fought a war in
August over the post-Soviet states’ separatist region of South Ossetia.

An independent military expert in Moscow said part of the pipeline
in question passes through South Ossetia. Georgia receives 10 per
cent of the gas pumped to Armenia via its pipeline as transit fees.