The saga continues...

---update ----

Slovak officials said later on Wednesday
that they had secured new supplies to cover
consumption until the end of January.
Slovakia, which gets almost all its gas from
Russia, declared a state of emergency on
January 6th, under which gas deliveries to
large clients were reduced, causing about 1,000
companies to shut down or cut production.
Fico said that the Slovak government had
stressed Ukraine’s responsibility for the crisis
and said it had “negatively affected Ukraine’s
credibility.

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Here in Bratislava the government is already being aided by Austria and Germany as well as France in terms of Gas shipments. Nobody has noticed any difference in heating and all is normal for now.

However right after this crisis is over I think its high time that we extend the western european gas pipeline that reaches as far as Vienna which is just a few kilometers from the slovak border and Bratislava. The supplier countries on that side are many but chiefly Algeria.

The EU needs to understand Slovak concerns and allow the nuclear plant at bohunice to switch on at full capacity. It is in good condition and has been modernised because Slovakia was hoping that it would be okayed by the austrians that are chiefly against re-opening it.

of course the minute the crisis is over Slovakia would mothball the plant again.

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Ukraine, Russia Agree to Hold Gas Talks in Moscow on Jan. 17

By Kateryna Choursina
Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The governments of Ukraine and Russia will meet on Jan. 17 in Moscow in an attempt to resolve the natural gas dispute which has disrupted deliveries of the fuel to European Union for nine days.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed gas supplies and agreed on the meeting by phone at midnight yesterday, according to a statement on the Ukrainian government Web site today.

Timoshenko sent a telegram to Putin guaranteeing Ukraine will ship to European countries all gas supplied by Russia to Ukrainian pipes “apart from 8 percent of gas used to fuel gas pumping,” according to the statement.

Talks between Ukraine and Russia on the price for gas deliveries to Ukraine and transit fee Russia pays for shipments to Europe via Ukrainian pipes have reached deadlock. Russia cut all deliveries to Ukrainian consumers on Jan. 1 and stopped supplying gas to Europe on Jan. 7.