Post by macmako on Jan 14, 2009 13:29:45 GMT -5
Balkans become hostage to Russo-Ukrainian standoff
Most of the Balkan countries are feeling the brunt of the natural-gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, which has cost them access to new supplies.
Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic and Turkey are seeing shortages of natural gas, since Russia's Gazprom supplies most of their imports. [Getty Images]
The heads of Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz met in Moscow Thursday (January 8th) to discuss solutions to a dispute over gas prices and transit fees, which has hit EU and Balkan countries in one of the coldest winters in decades.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and his Naftogaz counterpart, Oleh Dubyna, held their first face-to-face talks since the start of the crisis on January 1st, when Russia cut off gas shipments to Ukraine. Moscow and Kiev blame each other for the shutdown.
Russia provides 25% of Europe's total gas supplies, delivering about 80% of that fraction through pipelines that cross Ukraine.
Bulgaria, which depends on Russia for 96% of its gas, was one of the EU nations worst hit by the immediate loss of supply on Tuesday.
Millions of Bulgarians felt the impact of that move almost immediately, as radiators in centrally heated buildings across the country went cold before sunset and utilities scrambled to find alternative fuels. Dozens of schools and kindergartens closed down Wednesday as temperatures indoors fell below the legal minimum. Some hospitals said they might have to treat only patients requiring emergency care. The employers' organisation in the EU's poorest member said businesses were losing about 250m euros a day.
Neochim, one of Bulgaria's leading fertiliser producers, said it escaped a major explosion Tuesday when it had to shut down its facilities on a hasty emergency basis.
Macedonia, Greece and Turkey are also coping with shortages. The last two are slightly less dependent on Russian natural gas and have alternative supply routes, but Macedonia -- like Bulgaria -- relies almost completely on Russian gas.
Two of Macedonia's biggest factories reportedly had to cease production after the Orthodox Christmas on Wednesday.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Croatia, Serbia and Romania also reported a total cutoff of Russian deliveries, affecting them to varying degrees.
Among them, BiH is in the worst shape and fears "disaster", since Russia supplies nearly all its gas. Bosnians rushed to buy electric heaters in freezing weather Wednesday, while two major smelters had to close down nearly completely.
Croatia reportedly has enough reserves to last around three weeks, in large part because it produces nearly half of the natural gas it needs.
Serbia, though, relies on Russian supplies for about 87% of its gas needs. Srbijagas says its stockpile of gas could last about ten days.
Romania supplies around 65% of its own needs. The government assured Romanians that gas and heat should both be adequate and "that industry might be affected only if temperatures dropped to under an average of -15C".
CEOs Miller and Dubyna will attend an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday to address the crisis.
Accusing the two countries of holding the EU's gas supply "hostage" Wednesday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called for an immediate resumption of supplies.
This content was commissioned for SETimes.com
www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2009/01/08/feature-01
Most of the Balkan countries are feeling the brunt of the natural-gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, which has cost them access to new supplies.
Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic and Turkey are seeing shortages of natural gas, since Russia's Gazprom supplies most of their imports. [Getty Images]
The heads of Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz met in Moscow Thursday (January 8th) to discuss solutions to a dispute over gas prices and transit fees, which has hit EU and Balkan countries in one of the coldest winters in decades.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and his Naftogaz counterpart, Oleh Dubyna, held their first face-to-face talks since the start of the crisis on January 1st, when Russia cut off gas shipments to Ukraine. Moscow and Kiev blame each other for the shutdown.
Russia provides 25% of Europe's total gas supplies, delivering about 80% of that fraction through pipelines that cross Ukraine.
Bulgaria, which depends on Russia for 96% of its gas, was one of the EU nations worst hit by the immediate loss of supply on Tuesday.
Millions of Bulgarians felt the impact of that move almost immediately, as radiators in centrally heated buildings across the country went cold before sunset and utilities scrambled to find alternative fuels. Dozens of schools and kindergartens closed down Wednesday as temperatures indoors fell below the legal minimum. Some hospitals said they might have to treat only patients requiring emergency care. The employers' organisation in the EU's poorest member said businesses were losing about 250m euros a day.
Neochim, one of Bulgaria's leading fertiliser producers, said it escaped a major explosion Tuesday when it had to shut down its facilities on a hasty emergency basis.
Macedonia, Greece and Turkey are also coping with shortages. The last two are slightly less dependent on Russian natural gas and have alternative supply routes, but Macedonia -- like Bulgaria -- relies almost completely on Russian gas.
Two of Macedonia's biggest factories reportedly had to cease production after the Orthodox Christmas on Wednesday.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Croatia, Serbia and Romania also reported a total cutoff of Russian deliveries, affecting them to varying degrees.
Among them, BiH is in the worst shape and fears "disaster", since Russia supplies nearly all its gas. Bosnians rushed to buy electric heaters in freezing weather Wednesday, while two major smelters had to close down nearly completely.
Croatia reportedly has enough reserves to last around three weeks, in large part because it produces nearly half of the natural gas it needs.
Serbia, though, relies on Russian supplies for about 87% of its gas needs. Srbijagas says its stockpile of gas could last about ten days.
Romania supplies around 65% of its own needs. The government assured Romanians that gas and heat should both be adequate and "that industry might be affected only if temperatures dropped to under an average of -15C".
CEOs Miller and Dubyna will attend an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday to address the crisis.
Accusing the two countries of holding the EU's gas supply "hostage" Wednesday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called for an immediate resumption of supplies.
This content was commissioned for SETimes.com
www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2009/01/08/feature-01