Posted on 11/01/2009 12:47:34 PM PST by darkside321
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said Ukraine might be having problems paying for gas, raising new concerns over European supplies.
Mr Putin said the European Union had not yet given Ukraine the money it had promised to help provide stable supplies of Russian gas to Europe.
He also blamed Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko for blocking payment.
In January, many countries were left short of gas because of a payment dispute between Moscow and Kiev.
'Blocking funds'
"It appears we are again having problems with payments for our energy supplies, which is extremely regrettable. The EU has still not provided Ukraine with the money it has promised for that purpose," Mr Putin said.
"European leaders are referring us to the European Commission, while the European Commission leadership are evading discussing the issue with us."
But Mr Putin said that despite the lack of funding from the EU, Ukraine still had plenty of cash to pay its gas bills.
Referring to the country's large gold and foreign currency reserves, he said: "According to the Ukrainian Prime Minister [Yulia Tymoshenko], Yushchenko is obstructing normal co-operation between the central bank and the Ukrainian government and is blocking the transfer of relevant funds."
In August, the EU and international lending institutions agreed a $1.7bn (£1bn at the time) loan deal to help secure European gas supplies.
This was specifically designed to ensure that the disruptions to supplies that occurred earlier in the year were not repeated.
Mr Putin's comments have raised concerns that disruptions may happen again.
Russia provides about a quarter of the gas consumed in the EU and 80% of that is piped through Ukraine.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
The Ukraine buys the gas from Russia and resells it to the EU. If the Ukraine doesn’t buy gas from Russia, it will have no gas to sell to the EU. The problem is a billing and payment dispute between Russia and the Ukraine. Imagine if your local grocery store stopped paying the farmers for the food that you buy from the grocery store. Furthermore, if you don’t pay the grocery store, it will have no money to buy more food from the farmers to sell to you.
no the Ukraine doesn´t sell gas to the EU. russia does. the problem is the main pipeline to the EU countries runs across the ukraine. so if ukraine refuses to pay their gas bill and the russians shut it down because of that to teach them a lesson the EU is hurt too.
but anyway it is a dangerous game for russia to again shut it down (because in the long run they need the money from the EU). and if this happens too often they may find their self in a position in the future where the EU will say. no thanks we don´t need your gas anymore because we have found other suppliers because we can´t trust you. (but at the moment the EU just needs it)
Think of how man jobs could TRULY be created if we as a nation decided to embark upon energy independence (as near as possible) by drilling our oil reserves, pursuing coal and natural gas.
Ah, but then we would no longer be dependent upon other nations. And that is exactly what the eco-commies and Obammie and his commies desire. Total US dependence.
Either way, the Ukraine is acting as a middle man. It is not cost effective for Russia to send gas to the EU without going through the Ukraine, Belarus or Latvia and Lithuania. The route through the Ukraine is the most direct route for the natural gas pipeline and therefore carries most of the natural gas.
as far as i know they are working right now on a pipleline across the north sea which will start in russia and end without transiting any none EU country in the heart of europe exactly because of this. and there is “nabuco” (the answer to russia from the EU for the last winter :-) a pipeline planned to get gas without russian involving at all. but then again “we” would have to buy even more from the middle east. so who knows which is the “lesser” evil.
i agree. it´s beyond me why the US doesn´t drill. (of course the oil would not last forever but it would buy more then enought time to do a serious search for alternative
energy wells untill it would really run out. ok europe does not have this vast oil resources like the US but anyway “we” have still more then enought to make it 10-20 years alone. and this is enought time to find other solutions. i´m just sick that “we” still have to deal with regimes like saudi arabia (US) and Iran (EU) only because we want their oil. why not just search our own solutions and then let this Hell hole (what we call middle east) just implode for all i care.
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