<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Gas shortage looms for EU after Russia-Ukraine row
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Prague - European Union (EU) fears of a drop in vital gas supplies became a reality, after Russia accused Ukraine of 'stealing' from European customers and Brussels issued an urgent demand for contracts to be honoured.
Meanwhile, Russian energy giant Gazprom can no longer depend on Ukraine as a transit route to get gas to Europe and is looking at alternatives, the firm's deputy chief executive (CEO) told the BBC.
Russian gas flows to four European Union (EU) countries were below normal levels yesterday, after Moscow cut off supplies to Ukraine in a pricing dispute, and there were no talks in sight to resolve the dispute.
With temperatures below zero overnight in Europe, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz operator joined energy firms in Poland, Romania and Hungary in saying they had noted falls in supply, though flows to Europe's biggest economy, Germany, were not affected.
The EU, which gets a fifth of its gas from pipelines that cross Ukraine, said it would call a crisis meeting of envoys in Brussels tomorrow and demanded that transit and supply contracts be honoured.
Russia halted all supplies to Ukraine on Thursday in what it called a purely commercial dispute, but in the background is a fierce disagreement over a drive by Kiev's pro-Western leaders to join Nato.
Both sides sent delegations to Prague and other European capitals to put their case before EU politicians.
Signalling that a way out of the gas row was still some way off, Gazprom said Kiev was not ready to resume negotiations.
'They are not negotiating because there is nobody to negotiate with. It looks like they are not thinking about their own country, just playing political games,' Gazprom deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev said, after talks with officials in the Czech Republic, holder of the EU's rotating presidency.
He will also tour Germany, France and Britain to reassure European customers that Russia is a reliable energy partner. He has also accused Ukraine of stealing 35 million cubic metres of Russian gas a day intended for Europe, saying that Kiev would have to pay for it.
'It is an unacceptable situation,' he said.
Gazprom said it increased supplies of natural gas to Europe via three other routes to compensate for the 'siphoning' in Ukraine.
But Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz denied Gazprom's accusations and said Russia had reduced the amount it was sending through Ukraine.
Spokesman Valentyn Zemlyansky said yesterday that on the contrary, Naftogaz was spending its own so-called 'technical' gas to pump Russian gas to Europe. Pipelines require this minimum amount of gas to avoid an automatic shutdown.
Another Ukrainian official, Mr Bohodan Sokolovsky, raised the stakes in the escalating row between the two neighbours yesterday. He said that even though Ukraine will continue shipping Russian gas intended for Europe, disruptions in supplies will occur in the next 10 to 15 days if Ukraine's gas is not shipped along with it.
The EU presidency earlier proposed setting up independent monitoring stations on the Ukrainian-Russian and Ukrainian-Polish borders.
Mr Medvedev had told BBC earlier that it was 'necessary to develop alternative transit routes and we hope that Europe will make the necessary steps to support the realisation of this project'.
Europe has enough gas stockpiled to manage without Russian supplies for several days. But it could face difficulties should problems last for weeks, especially if cold weather drives up demand, analysts said. AFP, Reuters, AP
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Prague - European Union (EU) fears of a drop in vital gas supplies became a reality, after Russia accused Ukraine of 'stealing' from European customers and Brussels issued an urgent demand for contracts to be honoured.
Meanwhile, Russian energy giant Gazprom can no longer depend on Ukraine as a transit route to get gas to Europe and is looking at alternatives, the firm's deputy chief executive (CEO) told the BBC.
Russian gas flows to four European Union (EU) countries were below normal levels yesterday, after Moscow cut off supplies to Ukraine in a pricing dispute, and there were no talks in sight to resolve the dispute.
With temperatures below zero overnight in Europe, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz operator joined energy firms in Poland, Romania and Hungary in saying they had noted falls in supply, though flows to Europe's biggest economy, Germany, were not affected.
The EU, which gets a fifth of its gas from pipelines that cross Ukraine, said it would call a crisis meeting of envoys in Brussels tomorrow and demanded that transit and supply contracts be honoured.
Russia halted all supplies to Ukraine on Thursday in what it called a purely commercial dispute, but in the background is a fierce disagreement over a drive by Kiev's pro-Western leaders to join Nato.
Both sides sent delegations to Prague and other European capitals to put their case before EU politicians.
Signalling that a way out of the gas row was still some way off, Gazprom said Kiev was not ready to resume negotiations.
'They are not negotiating because there is nobody to negotiate with. It looks like they are not thinking about their own country, just playing political games,' Gazprom deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev said, after talks with officials in the Czech Republic, holder of the EU's rotating presidency.
He will also tour Germany, France and Britain to reassure European customers that Russia is a reliable energy partner. He has also accused Ukraine of stealing 35 million cubic metres of Russian gas a day intended for Europe, saying that Kiev would have to pay for it.
'It is an unacceptable situation,' he said.
Gazprom said it increased supplies of natural gas to Europe via three other routes to compensate for the 'siphoning' in Ukraine.
But Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz denied Gazprom's accusations and said Russia had reduced the amount it was sending through Ukraine.
Spokesman Valentyn Zemlyansky said yesterday that on the contrary, Naftogaz was spending its own so-called 'technical' gas to pump Russian gas to Europe. Pipelines require this minimum amount of gas to avoid an automatic shutdown.
Another Ukrainian official, Mr Bohodan Sokolovsky, raised the stakes in the escalating row between the two neighbours yesterday. He said that even though Ukraine will continue shipping Russian gas intended for Europe, disruptions in supplies will occur in the next 10 to 15 days if Ukraine's gas is not shipped along with it.
The EU presidency earlier proposed setting up independent monitoring stations on the Ukrainian-Russian and Ukrainian-Polish borders.
Mr Medvedev had told BBC earlier that it was 'necessary to develop alternative transit routes and we hope that Europe will make the necessary steps to support the realisation of this project'.
Europe has enough gas stockpiled to manage without Russian supplies for several days. But it could face difficulties should problems last for weeks, especially if cold weather drives up demand, analysts said. AFP, Reuters, AP
