/ world today news/ Most European countries have managed to stock up on Russian natural gas because of the warm winter and the reduced need for fuel. A spokesman for the EC said today that there are about 40 billion cubic meters in the storage of the EU countries, which is about 10% of the annual needs of the economies in the union.
The border of Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have filled 35 – 45% of the storage capacity, which is their consumption for 90 days. Poland has more than 70%, Austria has fuel for a whole year and Hungary almost 60 days. Serbia has stated that it has enough gas to supply itself in the event of a possible suspension of Ukrainian transit, and in Germany the stocks will last for about two months.
Ukraine itself has a 4-month supply as it buys fuel heavily due to lower prices in effect until the end of March. The country generally bought the blue fuel at preferential prices, but according to yesterday’s ITAR-TASS announcement, Gazprom has decided to cancel the preference from April 1.
At a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the president of Gazprom, Alexey Miller, stated that Ukraine is not paying its debts. The total amount of Ukrainian gas debt is 1.529 billion dollars. That is why Medvedev assessed Gazprom’s decision to suspend the preference as legitimate. On Medvedev’s order, the Russian Finance Ministry is investigating whether to grant Ukraine a loan of 2-3 billion dollars, with which Kiev can pay for the gas. The European Commissioner for Energy Gunter Oettinger said the EU would help Kiev pay its debt and could even supply gas to the country.
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