Countries in Central and South Eastern Europe are wheeling and dealing to come up with mutual agreements on natural gas supplies pending a resolution to the Russia - Ukraine dispute that has cut off the flow of Gazprom supply.

The 15 countries affected by the January 6 2009 cutoff are Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey. Supplies to Germany and Poland also decreased.

In Bulgaria, President Georgi Purvanov's office said on January 10 2009 that a deal had been agreed for Ukraine to draw on its own supplies to provide Bulgaria with up to 2.5 million cu m of a gas a day.

News agency Reuters quoted Naftogaz deputy chief Volodymyr Trikolych as saying that Ukraine had already started pumping 1.5 million cu m a day to Moldova.

In Belgrade, Srbijagas director Dusan Bajatovic was quoted by news website B92 as saying on January 10 that Serbia was "the only country in the region that managed to secure gas for users", helping Bosnia along the way.

He said that 4.7 million cubic meters of gas were continuously arriving from Germany and that this, "coupled with domestic reserves", would ensure energy for those heating plants that cannot switch to other fuels.

Batajovic said that after the pipelines had been filled with Hungarian and German deliveries, and after a deal has been made on gas transport between Russia and Ukraine, 12 to 24 hours will pass before this fuel reached Serbia.

Romanian natural gas producer Romgaz could increase its output by a daily maximum of 0.5 to one million cu m, but could not completely replace the lack of Russian gas imports, company general manager Lucian Stancu, Bulgarian news agency Focus quoted Romanian agency Mediafax as reporting.

"It is possible to increase our output. Since the Russian gas crisis started, we have increased production by one to 1.5 million cu m a day, but we can't totally cover the lack of imports," Stancu said.

He said that Romgaz could further increase its daily output by an additional 0.5 to one million cubic meters of gas.

Energy experts in the 27 member states of the European Union proposed Friday to increase production of natural gas in Norway, Britain, Romania and Poland in a bid to compensate for the halt in Russian gas deliveries to Europe, AFP cited the European Commission as saying.

Romania's main gas producers are vertically integrated oil and gas company Petrom and gas producer Romgaz.

Petrom said it is producing gas at maximum capacity and an increase in output could be achieved with massive investments in exploration and production.
 
Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported the country's energy and natural resources minister Mehmet Hilmi Guler as saying on January 10 that Turkey was holding talks with Russia and Ukraine to end their natural gas dispute.

Turkey continued its mediation to solve the natural gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, Anatolia quoted Guler as saying.

Hungarian news agency MTI, quoted by Reuters, said that Hungary would supply Bosnia and Croatia with natural gas on January 10 and would also continue shipments it started earlier this week to Serbia.

Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek held talks in Moscow on January 10 with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to try to get gas supply to Europe restored. Topolanek's country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, which has called for supply to be restored, saying that a Russian demand for EU observers to be sent to Ukraine to monitor transit operations has been met. However, restoration of supply has not been restored as Russia's and Ukraine's gas operations continue to bicker about details.