Saturday, January 10, 2009

Russian Natural Gas to Europe Flowing

Kiev, Ukraine (AHN) - Europe's gas delivery problem has been solved with the agreement by Russia and Ukraine to have a monitoring team oversee the natural gas deliveries in the continent.

With the arrival on Thursday of the EU monitoring group in Ukraine, Gazprom is expected to turn on again the tap and resume gas deliveries to over 15 European nations. The natural gas pass through pipelines that go through Ukraine.

EU Energy Commission spokesman Ferran Terradellas estimates it may take three days before the whole delivery system functions again.

According to a spokesman of Ukraine's Naftogaz, members of the EU mission and Russian experts will visit gas pumping outlets. They are expected to arrive in Kiev on Friday. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the EU team is welcome to different parts of Russia to check the gas flows.

Until the resolution of the deadlock between Gazprom and Naftogaz officials through a surprise meeting in Moscow, various parts of Europe suffered from the lack of heating fuel since Wednesday at a time when winter has hit the EU.

While some heating stations were able to secure alternative energy, others could only run on natural gas and had to be temporarily shuttered.

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