Bitter weather and still no gas from Russia

Supplies to four EU countries are below normal levels, but still no talks in sight.

MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russian gas flows to four European Union countries were below normal levels on Saturday after Moscow cut off supplies to Ukraine in a pricing dispute, and there were no talks in sight to resolve the dispute.

With temperatures below zero overnight in Europe, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz operator joined energy firms in Poland, Romania and Hungary in saying they had noted falls in supply, though flows to Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, were not affected.


The European Union, which gets a fifth of its gas from pipelines that cross Ukraine, said it would call a crisis meeting of envoys in Brussels on Monday and demanded that transit and supply contracts be honored.

Three years after a similar dispute briefly disrupted supplies, European fears of gas flows dropping off in the dead of winter were once again becoming a reality – and Russia’s reputation as a reliable gas supplier was under new scrutiny.

Reuters