Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Gazprom, supplier of a quarter of Europe's gas, threatened to curtail exports to Ukraine over a $1.3 billion debt, almost two years after a similar pricing dispute disrupted Russian fuel shipments to the continent.

Gazprom warned the European Commission and consumers that it will take action unless Ukraine settles the debt by the end of the month, Ilya Kochevrin, vice-president of the state-run company's export arm, said today during a conference call in Moscow. Gazprom ``hopes'' shipments across Ukraine, Russia's main transit route, won't be disrupted, he said.

Gas supplies in Germany, Italy and other European countries dropped in January 2006 when Gazprom shut off supplies to Ukraine while negotiating a higher price. The European Union questioned Russia's reliability as an energy partner after the disruptions.

``Gazprom's image has already been tarnished, and this could increase the impression they are unreliable and push Europe to work on diversifying its gas supply,'' Sven Diermeier, an analyst at Independent Research GmbH in Frankfurt, said by telephone.

``We are examining the situation now,'' said Dmytro Marunich, a spokesman for NAK Naftogaz Ukrayny, by phone from the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. ``We will be able to comment only tomorrow.''

Gazprom accused Ukraine of siphoning off fuel meant for Europe during the 2006 standoff. Ukraine said then that Russia was trying to damage its economy before parliamentary elections.

`Purely' Commercial

``We need to move fast,'' Kochevrin said. ``With fall approaching and gas consumption rising, we definitely need to settle this issue.'' Gazprom's demands are ``purely'' commercial, he said, since Ukraine is able to pay the $130 a thousand cubic meters of gas Gazprom now charges.

Ukraine is currently in the third day of vote counting in the first parliamentary elections since Gazprom last cut supplies. Months of political stalemate have left the country without a government.

``The Kremlin may have blocked it from making this demand ahead of the election,'' said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Moscow-based UralSib Financial Corp. ``If this were a western energy supplier the customer would be reading the payment demand by candlelight in the cold.''

Gazprom, Russia's natural-gas export monopoly, threatened Belarus, another neighboring state, with similar cuts in August, before the country paid $460 million of debt. Gazprom's pipelines to Europe cross Ukraine and Belarus.

Behind Schedule

Talks on next year's gas shipments are behind schedule, Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Sept. 25.

``We think that the actual conflict between Gazprom and Ukraine will be solved soon,'' E.ON AG spokesman Mirko Kahre said today by telephone. The German utility received notification from Gazprom about the possible supply cut, he said.

Tomasz Fill, a spokesman for Polskie Gornictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo SA, Poland's Warsaw-based gas monopoly, wasn't able to confirm whether the company had received a warning.

To contact the reporter on this story: Torrey Clark in Moscow at tclark8@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 2, 2007 13:23 EDT