Europe may lose a quarter of its gas supply

Europe may lose a quarter of its gas supply

www.presstv.ir

Russia's Gazprom, supplier of a quarter of Europe's gas, warns that unless Ukraine signs a new contract gas supply to Europe will be cut.

Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer, says it would stop gas supplies to Ukraine at 0700 GMT Thursday if the country refuses to sing a new contract by the deadline of midnight Wednesday.

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Russian and Ukraine Gas Crisis Affecting EU (moved from ATSNN)

They have been there before, but here is another tension builder for an already jittering world.

The EU will get pressured into action if gas supplies become weakened at a time when many member states will require it. Effectively asking the Ukraine to pay-up when basically there is no money around is asking for trouble.




www.presstv.ir
(visit the link for the full news article)

the west is near bankruptcy and by such moves , russia will ensure econmic destruction of west and therebyreduce the west into its vassal state

reply to post by sadchild01


If it destroyed the west economically it would destroy itself.

Russia depends on high energy prices for its economy. If it destroys western demand for energy that would hurt itself far more than hurting the West.

The modern world is simply too interdependent to make power plays that worked in the past. It sends shockwaves through world markets and cripples nations not even involved in the power plays.



[edit on 31/12/08 by MikeboydUS]

I'm thinking that Russia is either pissed about them wanting to put up the missile shield or they're just extorting more money.. or both.

reply to post by MikeboydUS


not necessarily , it may be beneficial for Russia in the long term , as it will enable Russia to take control of West and its resources .... thereby inevitably benefiting it .

secondly,the economically destroyed West , will, have to agree to Russia in making yuan/Rouble , the reserve currency of Europe , as west is debt ridden, and this will inevitably transfer control of finances of Europe/West to China/Russia , enabling either to dictate terms similiar to IMF , thus further enabling more control of Western economy

[edit on 31-12-2008 by sadchild01]

Maybe if Ukraine would pay its BILLS ontime this wouldn`t happen

or do people think that Ukraine shouldn`t actually PAY for the gas they bought?

Originally posted by MetatronCubensis
I'm thinking that Russia is either pissed about them wanting to put up the missile shield or they're just extorting more money.. or both.

There has been pressure on retail gas suppliers to lower prices here in Britain, and no doubt nobody but the end consumer wants lower prices.

It wouldn't surprise me if behind closed doors the British Illuminati placemen phoned Vladimir Putin and got him to squeeze us hard. After all, they're all crooks.

Never mind that it's estimated that a further 20,000 people are going to die from hypothermia in Britain this winter due to fuel price inflation. It's just another Illuminati tactic to reduce the population a bit, and put many of us ander pressure.

Nice, ain't it?

For almost 30 years the west has known our energy dependence on places like Russia and the Middle East was not a good thing. For 30 years our governments have done nothing about it. Guess what. The chickens have come home to roost. Our governments in SO many ways have hosed us its not even funny. From the energy aspect to the financial aspect we have been burned by the people in charge. But you know something we can only blame ourselves. We have allowed this to happen. I guess none of us deserve true freedom...freedom is just to inconvenient...Paris Hiltons life is just to damn important.

www.telegraph.co.uk...

In the wake of dramatic falls in the price of oil and the wholesale cost of gas, the firms should be able to pass on cuts of 19pc to consumers on standard tariffs next month, Energyhelpline.com, the comparison service, has calculated.

But a spokesman for British Gas said: “We could look at cutting our prices in the spring, although it’s impossible to say by how much. Most of the gas for this winter was bought at higher prices than today’s.”

the same excuse was said by the petrol companies - and yet there has been a 20% fall in pump price - the gas companies are the crooks here

What a silly fear mongering again. May I give you a tip? Don't use the Iranian (state) press anymore as source. Ukraine officials have today arranged that Ukraine will pay 1 billion USD of its bill to Russia.

Anyhow, living in a country with the 2nd largest gas reserves in Europe, and the 17th largest in the world, I care little about all of this. Additionally, a new pipeline which is being built through the Baltic sea will avoid these Eastern European countries.

Originally posted by Mdv2
What a silly fear mongering again. May I give you a tip? Don't use the Iranian (state) press anymore as source. Ukraine officials have today arranged that Ukraine will pay 1 billion USD of its bill to Russia.

Anyhow, living in a country with the 2nd largest gas reserves in Europe, and the 17th largest in the world, I care little about all of this. Additionally, a new pipeline which is being built through the Baltic sea will avoid these Eastern European countries.

Dead right

It also needs to be pointed out that many of the countries that use the Russian gas are eastern bloc. This does not bind them with western economies and would not be that beneficial to Russia in the 'East vs West' thing.

If something like this did occour, it would affect some EU countries quite a bit but the EU could place serious sanctions on Russia which would cripple them just as much.

Originally posted by Mdv2
What a silly fear mongering again. May I give you a tip? Don't use the Iranian (state) press anymore as source. Ukraine officials have today arranged that Ukraine will pay 1 billion USD of its bill to Russia.

Anyhow, living in a country with the 2nd largest gas reserves in Europe, and the 17th largest in the world, I care little about all of this. Additionally, a new pipeline which is being built through the Baltic sea will avoid these Eastern European countries.

briliiant!

link? the OP article was at 13.54 GMT of todays date

reply to post by sadchild01


How will it be good in the long term? Russia would be economically devastated. They would be in as much debt as the West. Neither side would benefit short or long term.

Europe would not want the ruble and no one would want the Yuan either. China's economy would be just as devastated by a western economic collapse.

China and Russia both would be too busy with internal security during such an economic collapse to dictate anything to anyone.

China does not want a western economic collapse. Its export economy needs people from the west to buy their products. Russia needs the world's energy markets to stay high in order to prosper. To do that Western economies need to have high demand for energy and plenty of money to purchase Chinese products.

Another thing is the resulting effects of cutting off energy and devastating nations economically. Its a good way to foment desperation and extremism.
Instead of really hurting the west it might lead to fascist demagogues and totalitarianism. Russia might find itself facing off with a fascist Trans Atlantic Union, a literal Western Imperium that Hitler could only dream of.

Originally posted by Harlequin

Originally posted by Mdv2
What a silly fear mongering again. May I give you a tip? Don't use the Iranian (state) press anymore as source. Ukraine officials have today arranged that Ukraine will pay 1 billion USD of its bill to Russia.

Anyhow, living in a country with the 2nd largest gas reserves in Europe, and the 17th largest in the world, I care little about all of this. Additionally, a new pipeline which is being built through the Baltic sea will avoid these Eastern European countries.

briliiant!

link? the OP article was at 13.54 GMT of todays date

It's 2 billion, my bad.

LONDON -- The Ukrainian government said Tuesday the state-controlled gas company Naftogaz will pay a $2 billion gas debt to Russia's OAO Gazprom with credit from state banks.

Under the order, issued by Ukraine's government on Dec. 29 and published Tuesday, Naftogaz will borrow the money from Oshadbank and Ukreksimbank. The government also said it guarantees that Naftogaz would fulfill the order. Naftogaz spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires the company hopes to pay off the debt by the end of 2008.

Gazprom says Naftogaz owes it over $2 billion for gas deliveries in November and December. If the debt issued isn't settled before Jan. 1, Gazprom is threatening to cut off gas supplies and raise the price to Ukraine significantly.

Gazprom supplies a quarter of Europe's gas needs. The majority of that is shipped through pipelines crossing Ukraine.

Earlier Tuesday, Gazprom said an agreement hadn't been reached but that talks were continuing in Moscow.

Source


[edit on 31-12-2008 by Mdv2]

Ukraine have a habit of being a bad debt recently - this is i think the 4th time this year they haven`t paid ontime for the gas.

Ukraine will have to back down and pay up. They have the money - and they aren;t telling the truth if they say otherwise. If they don't back down and pay up I suspect the current Ukranian govt will go under and a governmentt more friendly with Russia will emerg. They probably wouldn't be in this sistuation if the US hadn't egged them on into joiining NATO etc - areas of interest where they have no real interest.

Originally posted by Harlequin
Ukraine have a habit of being a bad debt recently - this is i think the 4th time this year they haven`t paid ontime for the gas.

The reason being that they've always had some kind of special relationship with Russia and were therefore allowed to postpone payments. However, since Ukraine's government has turned pro-Western, Russia wants to end this special ''treatment''. Eighty percent of Russia's gas is transported via Ukraine to Europe. Russia would only close it for 1-2 days only in the worst case scenario because it doesn't want to harm the relationship with Europe even further.

Maybe they can sell a couple of nukes to the Hadji's and raise money for their debts that way! Piss on the EU for leaving us on our own in the the middle east! USA baby! To hell with everyone else

May God and country rain hellfire and terrible death upon them all!

[edit on 31-12-2008 by modog33]

Maybe Ukraine should just pay its already subsidised gas bills, and none of this would happen. All Gazprom wants is payment for gas that was already supplied to Ukraine. And it is not like Ukraine is flat broke - Yuschenko just dismissed the country's Parliament for no reason a few months ago, and the resulting reelection cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ukraine is the one that is doing the extorting here. It knows that even if Russia stops supplying gas to it, it can simply siphon off gas meant for European countries further down the pipeline. Thus it does not both to pay the bills, yet continues to use gas.

Why is it that people blame Russia in this case? Why should gas be free for Ukraine, while Russian clients and customers pay for it? And why should other European countries that pay their bills suffer because of Ukrainian government? It should be quite simple - if you don't pay you won't get the product. As soon as the Baltic pipeline is completed this nonesense will stop.



And yes - Russian news confirm that the talks between Gazprom and Ukraine failed. Gazprom spokesman said that it is now decided that gas to Ukraine is to be cut off on Thursday. If European clients see their share of supplies drop, they have no one to blame but Ukraine.

news.bbc.co.uk...

en.rian.ru...

en.rian.ru...