WRAP Analyst on Gazprom's possibly halting gas supply to Belarus, ADDS Minsk reax

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• published: 23 Jul 2015
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Moscow, Russia 1. Various of exterior of Gazprom's headquarters in Moscow 2. Mid of Alfa Bank analysts at work 3. Cutaway of computer screen 4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Konstantin Batunin, oil and gas analyst, Alfa Bank "At some point in the future, probably in the nearest future, Belarussia (Belarus) is just simply bound to come to some certain kind of agreement with Gazprom and the reason is that Belarussia just simply doesn't have any other means and source of natural gas other than Russian gas." 5. Cutaway of Alfa Bank workers 6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Konstantin Batunin, oil and gas analyst, Alfa Bank "In the nearest future in the short-term probably say two/three days, one week, my strong belief that in case Gazprom and Beltransgaz fail to come to any kind of solution to the current situation, Gazprom will simply temporarily switch off the Belarussian route." 7. Cutaway Alfa Bank workers 8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Konstantin Batunin, oil and gas analyst, Alfa Bank "Gazprom will try to redirect some of the volumes which are currently shipped through the territory of Belarussia to, for instance, Ukrainian destination, thus extending the volumes which are currently delivered to European countries through Ukraine and reducing the volume which is delivered through Belarussia." FILE - Novy Urengoi, Russia - September 2006 9. Aerial view of Gazprom gas fields in Urengoi 10. Various of Gazprom gas pipes Minsk, Belarus 11. Various of city streets 12. Wide of suburban street 13. Close-up of woman near her house UPSOUND: (Russian) "We are used to difficulties." 14. Close-up hands of woman lighting gas stove 15. Woman putting pot on gas stove 16. Women standing outside houses 17. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) voxpop, Minsk resident (responding to talk of gas being cut off) "We will have to pull in our belts, I guess, as they used to say in the old times. We have survived much worse conditions and we will survive this time. And maybe they will raise our pensions. What are we going to do? But what can we do? We are all against that, of course. We all want to live like all normal people live." 18. Wide of women walking up street 19. Various of local steam plant STORYLINE: A Russian gas analyst predicted on Friday that his country's natural gas monopoly - Gazprom - will cut off supplies to Belarus within a couple of days if no agreement on new gas prices is reached. Konstantin Batunin, an oil and gas analyst at Alfa Bank in Moscow, was speaking as senior Belarussian energy officials headed for the Russian capital for further talks to try and reach a deal over the contracts. "My strong belief that in case Gazprom and Beltransgaz fail to come to any kind of solution to the current situation, Gazprom will simply temporarily switch off the Belarussian route," Batunin told AP Television. But he thought the two sides would eventually reach some kind of agreement. "At some point in the future probably in the nearest future, Belarussia is simply bound to come to some certain kind of agreement with Gazprom and the reason is that Belarussia just simply doesn't have any means and source of natural gas other than Russian gas," he explained. Gazprom warned Belarus on Thursday not to siphon gas from the main pipeline leading across its territory to Europe, should it go ahead with its threat to cut off gas supplies on New Year's Day. Belarus has refused the state-controlled Russian company's demand that it pay more than twice the current price for gas next year and hand over half of the shares in the nation's pipeline. Belarus has said it is ready to sell 50 per cent of Beltransgaz, but wants to keep the gas price lower. "We will have to pull in our belts, I guess, as they used to say in the old times," one local woman said. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/6b8480f2b4883cde65dffef884dc7bc5 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork