RUSSIA CUTS GAS FLOW TO ARMENIA

FT
Dec 14, 2009

MOSCOW, December 14 – Russia halted gas supplies to Armenia after two
bombs were found close to a pipeline in southern Russia, officials
said on Monday, but Armenia’s gas importer said it had enough reserves
to supply consumers.

A trunk gas pipeline in Russia’s Ingushetia region was shut down
late on Sunday after several explosive devices were found nearby,
a police official in Ingushetia told Reuters.

The stoppage affected customers in Russia’s North Ossetia and
Ingushetia regions as well as Armenia, which gets about 2bn cubic
metres of gas annually from Russia, Russian news agencies reported.

A spokeswoman for the Armenian subsidiary of Russian gas monopoly
Gazprom, ArmRosGazprom, said gas had been cut but that domestic
consumers would not be affected.

"Our dispatcher received a telegram that deliveries of gas to Armenia
would stop," said Shushanik Sardaryan, ArmRosGazprom spokeswoman.

Gas flows across Europe FT interactive graphic: Countries at greatest
vulnerability to a cessation of gas supplies through the Ukraine
"We will use gas from our storage facilities until the restoration
of supplies," she said.

The mainly Muslim region of Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya,
has seen a surge in attacks by Islamist rebels in recent months.

Russian supplies to Armenia transit through Georgia, which has not
been affected by the cut, a spokeswoman for the Georgian Oil and Gas
Corporation told Interfax news agency.

A spokesman for Russia’s Gazprom said he was not immediately able to
comment on the cut in supplies.