Brussels, 06/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - As we were going to press on Monday 6 February, the supply of gas from Russia to EU member states was returning to normal after supplies had been reduced due to the impact of a cold patch across Europe, according to information from the European Commission.
On Monday, Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia told the Commission that supplies from Russia were back to normal, and things were improving in Germany, Italy and Romania. Marlene Holzner, a spokeswoman for EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, said at lunchtime on Monday that there was no emergency in Europe and that consumers and businesses were receiving supplies as normal because all the member states concerned are dealing well with the cold spell and using market measures to alleviate any problems. She explained that gas companies are using stockpiled gas and buying up supplies, including liquefied gas, from the gas markets. The reverse flow of gas was made compulsory in the third package of EU energy liberalisation legislation, and it has been used to alleviate shortages in some areas.
The situation in Italy reached a level two alert, which means that the market alone was unable to cover the shortages and ministers were due to meet on Monday to decide what to do. The Italian industry minister, Corrado Passera, said on Monday morning that the situation was critical, but well under control and anyway, Italy was a highly diversified and well-connected country. This was echoed shortly afterwards by the Commission spokeswoman. Italy is importing more gas from North Africa to compensate for a shortage of supplies from Russia.
It was not clear on Monday exactly why gas supplies from Russia had been reduced. Gazprom supplies gas to a dozen member states (the Baltic states were also affected by the shortages). The Commission put the EU gas coordination group on level three alert on Friday, a group composed of representatives of EU member states, energy companies and gas pipeline operators and asked the Russian ambassador to the EU to explain what was happening, but had not received any answer by Monday lunchtime.
On Friday, Gazprom said it would be meeting all its gas supply commitments in Europe and said that the shortages were due to a surge in demand from Europe over and above the usual demand during a cold spell.
Ukraine, which came under fire in 2009 for causing shortages in gas supplies (80% of Russian gas destined for the EU passes through Ukraine) says that it has done everything it should. Ukrainian national gas incumbent Naftogaz said on 4 February that it was taking as much gas as possible from its underground reservoirs and reducing the amount of gas its takes from the Gazprom supplies into its own grid in order to ensure as much gas as possible is exported to EU member states. (EH/transl.fl)