As of 3.30am on January 6 2009 the supply of Russian natural gas to Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and Macedonia has been halted, Bulgarian Ministry of Economy and Energy said on January 6 2009.

This leaves Bulgarian entirely dependent on its natural gas reserves in the village of Chiren in central Bulgaria. According to Bulgargaz, the state-owned natural gaz distributing company, these reserves can last up to one month with reduced supplies.

The natural gas supplies were halted due to the ongoing Russian-Ukraine dispute over the Ukrainian debt to Russia's Gazprom and increased prices sought by the Russian side. Ukraine serves as a transit country to the Balkans.

On January 3 2009, Dimitar Gogov, CEO of Bulgargaz, said that Bulgaria was using 10-11 million cu m of gas a day. If supply dropped to below six million, consumption would need to be curbed, he said.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev will held a 10am meeting on January 6 2009 to discuss the emergency situation which, combined with the extremely cold weather, could severely undermine the country's situation vis-a-vis energy.

Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov has already started talks with Bulgarian companies about reducing the consumption of natural gas in a way to limit the impact of the stalled natural gas supplies from Russia.

About 80 per cent of gas supplies in Greece come from Russia. As a result of the growing gas crisis, the country has received four million cu m instead of the requested six million a day earlier. According to a representative of the state-run gas company DEPA, Greece has sufficient supplies to last two weeks, including deliveries from Azerbaijan through Turkey and stockpiles from a depository near Athens. The Balkan country consumed 4.3 billion cu m of gas in 2008.