Thursday, January 08, 2009

Countries affected by Russia-Ukraine gas dispute

(Reuters) - Ukraine's state energy company Naftogaz said on Wednesday that all Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukrainian territory had halted at 0544 GMT (12:44 a.m. EST) in a pricing dispute.

Following are summaries of the gas supply situation in European countries affected by the action.

AUSTRIA

Gas flows stopped on January 7. Russia supplies 51 percent of Austria's gas.

Oil and gas group OMV was drawing on reserves, domestic production and other imports to guarantee supply.

The company has about 1.75 billion cubic meters of gas in storage, enough to supply Austrian household demand for three months during the winter.

GERMANY

E.ON Ruhrgas said gas shipments to Europe via Ukraine had been massively reduced since early on Tuesday and expects gas transit into Germany via Czech Waidhaus border point to stop entirely during the day.

Germany receives more than 40 percent of its gas from Russia. Energy firms warned of gas shortages if the dispute lasted much longer and sub-zero temperatures endured.

ITALY

Russian gas imports via the TAG pipeline were substantially interrupted from 1 a.m. on Wednesday.

Russia supplies around 31 percent of Italy's gas imports, or about 60 million cubic metres a day.

Italy has enough gas reserves to last several weeks, according to Industry Minister Claudio Scajola.

Italy has no reasons for concern regarding its energy supplies over the next few weeks in the wake of the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, the chief executive of oil and gas company Eni, Paolo Scaroni, said on Tuesday.

Scaroni said that since the first gas crisis between Russia and Ukraine at the start of 2006, Eni had put in place a policy of diversifying gas supplies and boosting gas storage.

FRANCE

Russian shipments dropped by more than 70 percent on January 6. French Energy group GDF Suez guaranteed supplies.

France imports 15 percent of its gas supply from Russia. It does not rely on gas in the same way as Germany or Italy because 80 percent of its electricity is produced by nuclear energy.

Remaining effected countries listed at Reuter's link above.

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