You may remember that in an earlier phase of the dispute between Ukraine and Russia (not to be confused with the Kiev vs rebels fight), no agreement was reached on the payment of a $4.5 billion gas bill that Russian Gazprom said was overdue from Ukraine’s Naftogaz. And Gazprom demanded pre-payment for any future gas deliveries to Ukraine. Europe depends on Russia for a significant proportion of its energy supplies. Last year, Russia provided roughly 30% of Europe’s gas. Half of this gas supply goes through Ukraine. Russia is refusing to send Ukraine more gas until it pays past-due gas bills. Ukraine claims it owes Russia squat. Analysts have pointed out that Ukraine can and probably will syphon gas from supplies in transit to Europe. Russia could also shut the pipeline through Ukraine. Thanks to Europe now having large energy stockpiles, due in part to a mild winter, conventional thinking had it that Europe could go at least six months from the tightening of sanctions before any energy restrictions started to bite. Some analysts (presumably based on official messaging) were confident that Russia would feel serious economic pain and be forced to relent before Russia could even begin to play its European gas supply card.nakedcapitalism/2014/08/ilargi-eu-gas-supply-real-imminent-danger.html
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 06:37:25 +0000
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