ASHGABAT, Dec 30 (AFP) - Turkmenistan will cut gas supplies to Russia on Friday for a week and will halt deliveries to Ukraine until a new contract is agreed upon, the Turkmen foreign ministry said here in a statement.
It said deliveries to Russia would be suspended at midnight local time on December 31 until January 7 for maintenance operations, adding that a new agreement on the sale of gas to Russia should be reached early next month.
Turkmenistan threatened on Monday to cut gas supplies to Russia if Russian gas giant Gazprom did not raise the amount it was paying.
After several rounds of talks, the Turkmens, who want to increase the price of gas to 60 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres, and Gazprom which refuses to agree, have so far not found common ground.
In April 2003, Ashgabat and Moscow signed a 25-year cooperation accord under which Russia committed itself to buying at least 60 billion cubic metres of Turkmen gas per year.
Gazprom needs Turkmen gas to meet its obligations to Ukraine and its western European customers.
Turkmenistan also announced Friday that its gas shipments to Ukraine would be halted Friday until a new 2005 contract covering prices is signed.
12/30/2004 17:38 GMT - AFP