Russia stops gas supply to Europe

deepak pace

DJ_DEE
Russia has shut off all its gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine, the latest move in a pricing dispute that has reduced or halted fuel deliveries to a dozen countries during a winter cold snap.

Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom, which had sharply limited supplies through Ukraine yesterday, has stopped all gas shipments through the country as of 0544 GMT, said Valentyn Zemlyansky, spokesman for Ukraine's Naftogaz.

About 80 per cent of Russian gas to Europe is shipped via Ukraine. Other smaller pipelines run through Belarus and Turkey.

"It was the Russian side's decision to stop all gas deliveries to Europe" through Ukraine, Naftogaz head Oleh Dubina told reporters. "I think it is inappropriate."

Russia confirmed the cutoff, but said it was Ukraine's fault because it had shut down the last pipeline carrying gas from Russia.

Gazprom also says it is reducing to compensate for the gas it accuses Ukraine of diverting. The Russia-Ukraine natural gas dispute has left tens of thousands of people in Europe without heat as governments scrambled to find alternative energy sources.

By early on Wednesday, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey had all reported a halt in gas shipments,while France, Germany, Austria, Poland and Hungary had reported substantial drops in supplies from Russia.

In the Czech republic, gas operator RWE Transgas confirmed on Wednesday that Russian gas deliveries through Ukraine stopped completely overnight. The country still receives gas from another route from Norway and customers were not immediately affected, the company said.
 
Top