EU and Russia to hold talks over gas supplies

The European Union today scheduled talks with Russia to press for a speedy resolution of a dispute with Ukraine that has reduced…

The European Union today scheduled talks with Russia to press for a speedy resolution of a dispute with Ukraine that has reduced gas supplies to eastern and southern Europe.

Russian gas monopoly Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine on January 1st in a dispute over debts and pricing that shows no sign of ending, worrying European consumers that depend on Russia for a quarter of their natural gas.

A European Union fact-finding mission will meet Gazprom officials tomorrow, although there was no immediate danger to EU consumers from the dispute, an EU Commission spokesman said.

The Commission said the meeting would be in a European capital but the venue had not been confirmed.

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"Since we are the main market for Russian gas…we have an obvious interest in applying pressure on these parties to reach as soon as possible an agreement which is definitive," Johannes Laitenberger said.

Disruptions to gas supplies that had already hit Turkey and countries in eastern Europe spread to Croatia and Greece today, energy firms said.

"The situation is worrying when someone is unable to fulfil their contract," Dimitar Gogov, chief executive of Bulgarian state gas monopoly Bulgargaz, said today.

His country saw a 10-15per cent drop in gas supplies from Russia.

The row, which mirrors a dispute three years ago that disrupted gas supplies to Europe, threatens Russian ties with the West already strained by Moscow's war in Georgia in August.

The Kremlin has long opposed Ukraine's ambition to join NATO and some Western policymakers see parallels between the Georgian conflict and Russia's treatment of Ukraine.

State-controlled Gazprom has blamed Ukraine for siphoning off or blocking deliveries of gas equivalent to one-sixth of Russia's total supplies to Europe. Its chief executive, Alexei Miller, will meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today for talks on the dispute, a government spokeswoman said.

Supplies of Russian gas to Greece have been cut by a third, an official from Greek natural gas operator DEPA said, while supplies to Romania were 30per cent below contracted levels.