'Gas deliveries to the west under pressure'

amsterdam - A conflict between the Russian gas giant Gazprom and Ukraine may also jeopardize the gas supply to Western Europe, warns Kiev.

The Russian state-owned company has not supplied gas to Ukraine since this week because of a ruling in an old arbitration case. But the pipelines that run through Ukraine continue to the west. In two previous conflicts between the Russians and Ukrainians, gas pressure also declined in other countries. Kiev would then have tapped gas illegally.

In Europe alone, the memory of those conflicts causes chills. Vice-President Maros Sefcovic of the European Commission says to the Reuters news agency that not only the gas stop in the direction of Ukraine worries him, but he also worries about the delivery to EU countries. Brussels would like to mediate, out of enlightened self-interest.

Now Ukraine has to switch to oil for its energy supply. Schools and university in the country are already closed to save energy. The temperatures in the capital Kiev are currently under zero all day. At night it can freeze to sixteen degrees.

The delivery stop of Gazprom comes at a particularly inconvenient moment: also in Europe there is a cold wave, which because of its origin is called the 'Siberian bear'. Germany is by far the largest buyer of Russian gas of all European countries.

The Netherlands still has the gas field in Groningen, but that is much less likely to be emptied to prevent earthquakes. Due to the cold, Gasunie, the manager of the main network, had to pump a record amount of gas through the pipes this week.

That same Gasunie, in the Netherlands manager of the main network, was asked by this newspaper for a response to the Russian-Ukrainian quarrel. There is no answer for the time being.