Russia accuses Ukraine of stealing gas

[shugah]

Russia accuses Ukraine of stealing gas
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
(Filed: 03/01/2006)

Russia and Ukraine traded angry accusations in their energy war yesterday, escalating the conflict sparked when Moscow halted gas supplies to its neighbour at the weekend.

Both countries ignored European Union calls to resume negotiations. The EU imports a quarter of its total gas consumption from Russia, 80 per cent of which passes through Ukraine.

Russia sought to shift the blame for the crisis on to its neighbour, accusing it of "stealing" gas that flows through a pipeline in its territory destined for the rest of Europe.

With Russia's reputation as a reliable supplier of gas in question, the state-controlled monopoly, Gazprom, has repeatedly assured western consumers that they would not suffer from the dispute.

However, many European countries reported substantial drops in the amount of gas they were receiving.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=PNGEKK320M0FLQFIQMGCFGGAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2006/01/03/wgaz03.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/03/ixnewstop.html

[julianer]

1. What this issue should be focusing debate on

is that of fuel security in western Europe.

Free market policies in the UK have lead to the near destruction of our huge coalfields and our utter dependence on gas as an energy generation source.

We have sold off our own gas reserves to the highest private bidder and they are now depleting quickly.

Had we not abandoned our state-owned coalfields, letting them drown and collapse, we could have been at the forefront of clean coal and carbon sequestration technology.

Our energy supplies now lie at the whim of Putin and the Russian criminal classes.

Good old Maggie who started the madness! Good old John Major who applied the coup de grace! How we'll cheer them when we shiver in the cold, dark nights of fuel poverty to come! At least we'll be free of repressive state industry - that'll warm our hearts!

[Kolesar]

2. Do you mean coal in Germany or Britain?

...or somewhere else? I am not well read on this subject. This would be a good subject for the E&E forum.

[rucky]

3. Here...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/03/MNGFLGGIKH1.DTL

[julianer]

4. Britain

I don't know much about the German coal industry but I don't think it has been privatised...yet.

I was really saying that letting the market decide things leads to a proper mess in the long run.

[Name removed]

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