Posts Tagged ‘russia’
Russia closes the tap on gas pipes through Ukraine to EU countries and fuels need for new routes
I am trying to understand what does Russia hope to prove when cutting entirely or partially gas deliveries to countries in the region which are served by gas pipes passing through Ukraine. Romania being cut from the Russian gas pipes seems to be the least worrying of the cases in the Balkans, because we only use around 30 percent imported gas. But countries like Bosnia and Bulgaria, which rely almost exclusively on gas from Gazprom, are in trouble. After ceasing gas delivery to Ukraine starting January 1 on failure to agree on terms for the 2009 contract between the two, Russia has gradually went on cutting or in some cases decreasing the volume of gas sent to Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, even France, Poland, Slovakia and Turkey. Some of these countries didn’t have all their eggs in the same basket and have kept gas stocks and coal alternatives for situations like this.
Romanian PM Emil Boc says Romania receiving some 70 percent less gas from Russia won’t affect Romanian individual end users. Also, thermo central units will use alternative energy sources to keep providing heating to end users. What comes as a relief in these particular circumstances is that some of the large gas consumers are at lows with production due to the financial crisis and are also at lows with gas consumption as well. The Russia – Ukraine gas dispute and the Gaza military confilct has sent crude oil prices up, and has also put back on the table concerns overs Russia’s reliability. Russia and Ukraine had a similar gas row three years ago. To me this shows what it’s like to end up with largely depending on one unreliable source of natura resources. The upside of this new bickering between Ukraine and Russia is that it may trigger European beneficiary countries working faster on building alternative gas routes through Europe, but in the end the gas source would still be the same. On one hand, the North Stream project, supported by Russia, which would hold more than half of the project through Gazprom, would sendf gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany. South Stream would send gas to the EU through pipes under the Black Sea. A third option would be to expand the Blue Stream pipeline, now going to Turkey, to SE Europe. Onthe other hand, the Nabucco pipeline proposed project, which should cut Russia out of the picture and send Caspian Sea gas (if there’s enough gas there, say commentators) to Europe might come out as winner if Russia’s decision to cut gas to the EU mid winter would step on too many toes.
Later edit: Both Russia and Ukraine accused eachother of blocking the delivery of gas to EU states. What could be the way to find out which one of them is telling the truth and which one really closed the taps? I found a history of Russia – Ukraine gas disputes here. But as with any wikipedia info, I wouldn’t trust it totally.
