"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

Effort to resolve gas crisis inches ahead

PARIS: A high-level effort to resolve the gas crisis in Europe inched forward Thursday after Gazprom, the Russian natural gas monopoly, said it would resume shipments as soon as monitors were in place to verify that Ukraine was not tapping supplies meant for European Union customers.But Ukraine balked at Gazprom's demand that Russian monitors be allowed to inspect the Ukrainian pipeline network, frustrating a deal amid an increasingly serious fuel shortage.Aleksei Miller, Gazprom's chief executive, said in Brussels that monitors from 10 countries would help verify that the gas arriving at Ukraine's eastern border for European customers was being shipped to the west. He said that once the monitors were fully deployed, "we will resume gas supplies to ensure 100 percent of European transit."Oleh Dubyna, chief executive of Naftogaz, the Ukrainian national energy company, said Ukraine was ready to resume pumping as soon as Gazprom restarted shipments, on the condition that Gazprom provided gas to run the pipeline system.The Ukraine government also signed a protocol with the EU to accept European monitors, who could be in place Friday.But EU officials in Brussels said that Gazprom refused to restart exports unless Russian experts were included in the monitoring group in Ukraine, and that Ukraine would not accept the condition.The EU energy commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, said he did not know when gas service would be restored, despite the fact that European citizens were "suffering a lot."The impact of the gas cuts was most painful in southeastern Europe, where hundreds of thousands of people in Serbia, Bosnia and Bulgaria were without heat. In a European parliamentary committee hearing Thursday, Evgeni Kirilov, a member from Bulgaria - which depends almost completely on Russia for its gas and has reserves sufficient for only a few more days - said he could not understand "how two of the biggest countries in Europe can be so uncivilized and irresponsible."He added:"We are hostage to this irresponsibility. "Christopher Beazley, a British member, warned Russia that it was harming relations with Europe. He pointed to "cyberwars in Estonia" - a wave of Internet attacks was launched from Russia against Web sites in Estonia in 2007 during a political dispute - as well as the brief war with Georgia last summer, and now the cutoff of gas."Mr. Putin must understand that these tactics will not work," he said, referring to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia.
Gazprom halted all shipments to Ukraine for its own use on Jan. 1, then stopped gas exports for transshipment through Ukraine on Wednesday, saying its western neighbor was taking gas from the pipeline meant for EU customers. The dispute has left Ukraine and 17 European countries with either no gas supplies or a sharp reduction in supplies in the middle of winter...
By David Jolly
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