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No end in sight for gas crisis that's chilling EU
Source: Agencies |
January 16, 2009, Friday
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UKRAINE rejected Russia's latest request to pipe natural gas west to increasingly frustrated European Union consumers yesterday, deepening the bitter economic and political dispute that has paralyzed energy shipments to Europe.
Desperate to restore supplies, the EU said it was ready to join a weekend meeting between Russia and Ukraine to seek a solution to the crisis that has left eastern Europe frantically scrambling for heat, light and power.
With the cutoff of Russian gas supplies via Ukraine in its ninth day, there was little sign of an end to the delivery drought. After visiting Kiev and Moscow to press his case, the prime minister of gas-starved Slovakia said he had little hope that deliveries would be restored any time soon.
"That's practically impossible," Robert Fico told reporters in Bratislava.
Europe depends on Russia for about a quarter of its gas, with 80 percent of it delivered via Ukrainian pipelines. Russia stopped selling gas to Ukraine on January 1 because of a price dispute, then accused Ukraine of stealing Europe-bound gas and turned off the taps entirely on January 7.
A hard-won deal to deploy EU monitors at key gas junctions raised hopes for a renewal of supplies on Tuesday, but they were quickly dashed amid mutual recriminations between Russia and Ukraine.
For the third day in a row, Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom opened a tap near the border yesterday and asked Ukraine to send a limited amount on to Europe.
Ukraine's state-run gas company Naftogaz refused, saying the route Gazprom demanded would force Ukraine to shut off energy supplies to millions of Ukrainian consumers first.
Russia insists the requested route is fine.
Desperate to restore supplies, the EU said it was ready to join a weekend meeting between Russia and Ukraine to seek a solution to the crisis that has left eastern Europe frantically scrambling for heat, light and power.
With the cutoff of Russian gas supplies via Ukraine in its ninth day, there was little sign of an end to the delivery drought. After visiting Kiev and Moscow to press his case, the prime minister of gas-starved Slovakia said he had little hope that deliveries would be restored any time soon.
"That's practically impossible," Robert Fico told reporters in Bratislava.
Europe depends on Russia for about a quarter of its gas, with 80 percent of it delivered via Ukrainian pipelines. Russia stopped selling gas to Ukraine on January 1 because of a price dispute, then accused Ukraine of stealing Europe-bound gas and turned off the taps entirely on January 7.
A hard-won deal to deploy EU monitors at key gas junctions raised hopes for a renewal of supplies on Tuesday, but they were quickly dashed amid mutual recriminations between Russia and Ukraine.
For the third day in a row, Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom opened a tap near the border yesterday and asked Ukraine to send a limited amount on to Europe.
Ukraine's state-run gas company Naftogaz refused, saying the route Gazprom demanded would force Ukraine to shut off energy supplies to millions of Ukrainian consumers first.
Russia insists the requested route is fine.
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