Wednesday January 7, 07:32 AM
Russia stops all gas shipments to Europe via Ukraine: Kiev
By Leigh Thomas
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KIEV (AFP) - Russia on Wednesday halted all shipments of its gas bound for European customers that pass through Ukrainian territory, a spokesman for Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz told AFP.
"Russia stopped all transit through Ukraine" at 7:44 am (0544 GMT), said Naftogaz spokesman Valentin Zemlyansky.
"Russia has left Europe without gas," he added.
With 17 European reporting sharp falls or a complete halt in Russian gas shipments Tuesday, the European Union said "the situation is completely unacceptable" and demanded the flow be restored.
In the first sign of compromise, however, gas officials in Moscow and Kiev signalled that they were ready for further talks to resolve the problems. But both sides continued to trade blame publicly for the disruption.
"The Czech EU Presidency and the European Commission demand that gas supplies be restored immediately to the EU and that the two parties resume negotiations at once," they said in a statement.
Russian gas deliveries to the Czech Republic were also halted overnight, the CTK news agency reported Wednesday, citing the dominant gas importer RWE Transgas.
However, RWE Transgas spokesman Martin Chalupsky, quoted by the agency, said contingency plans had been put in place for increased deliveries from Norway.
"We don't expect the situation to have an impact on our clients in the Czech Republic," Chalupsky said.
"The current deliveries are bigger than the amount of natural gas we got from the east on Tuesday," he said.
One after another, European countries announced cuts in their supplies of Russian gas, with Balkan countries the hardest hit but EU heavyweights France, Germany and Italy also suffering reductions.
Russia is the world's largest natural gas producer and provides around one-quarter of the gas used in the European Union, or about 40 percent of the gas the bloc imports.
Russia cut gas supplies to Ukraine on January 1 over a payment dispute. It then accused Ukraine of "stealing" Russian gas meant for customers in Europe.
On Monday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir ordered an immediate reduction of gas shipped to via Ukraine to compensate for volumes Gazprom said had been illegally siphoned off by Kiev.
Bulgaria has resorted to rationing supplies to industry, Slovakia declared an energy emergency and most Balkan countries said deliveries of Russian gas had been totally halted.
Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, France, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey all reported deep cuts in their gas supplies.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski called on the European Union to play a more active role in settling the gas dispute.
Since the solution to the problem was down to those it affected, "Europe should actively involve itself in the mediation process," he said in a statement posted on his website.
"I am convinced that Europe has a vital interest in playing a more active role in stabilising the situation," he said. "The situation is dramatic in certain European Union countries."
The disruption coincides with a particularly -- temperatures dropped to minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 Fahrenheit) in Serbia -- and many countries in eastern and central Europe depend on gas for central heating.
Experts said the immediate impact on consumers in Europe would be mitigated by the fact that they had consciously stocked up on reserves after a similar Russia-Ukraine dispute caused shortfalls in 2006.
"We are still a long way from end-user customers having a problem," said Chris Weafer, chief strategist for Moscow-based investment bank UralSib.
In Kiev, the chief executive of Ukraine's state gas firm Naftogaz, Oleg Dubina, said that he would travel to Moscow on Thursday for talks with Russia's energy giant Gazprom, which also said it was ready to negotiate.
Gazprom chief Alexei Miller also said that Russia would hold talks in Brussels Thursday with the European Union and the EU Commmission on the gas crisis.
The EU presidency, represented by the Czech Republic, said it considered all sides were ready to return to the negotiating table.
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