Russia halted gas supplies to Armenia after two bombs were found close to a pipeline in southern Russia, officials said yesterday, 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 said.
The stoppage affected customers in North Ossetia and Ingushetia regions as well as Armenia, which gets around 2 billion cubic meters 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,” spokeswoman Shushanik Sardaryan said. “We will use gas from our storage facilities until the restoration of supplies.”
Ingushetia 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 Georgian Oil and Gas Corp spokeswoman said.
A Gazprom spokesman said he was not able to comment on the cut in supplies.
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