Well Gas and Gazprom are certainly making the news today.
Russia's Gazprom Shuts Off Gas Supplies to Ukraine (Update1)
Jan. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Russia's OAO Gazprom cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine after the country refused to pay more than four times 2005's rate for the fuel, deepening tensions between the two former Soviet republics.
State-run Gazprom, which supplies a quarter of Ukraine's gas and uses the country's pipelines to supply the same proportion to western Europe, began to shut off supplies to Ukraine at 10 a.m. local time today, Sergei Kupriyanov, a spokesman for the Moscow- based company, said on its NTV television network. Ukraine has enough fuel stored to last four months, and both sides have said supplies to western Europe won't be affected.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who campaigned against Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko a year ago in Ukraine's so called Orange Revolution, last night offered to delay the increase by three months if a contract was signed by midnight. Yushchenko refused, calling it ``economic pressure.''
``Putin hates Yushchenko and wants to break him down,'' said Sergei Markov, a political consultant who the Kremlin sent to Kiev in 2004 to help former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in his unsuccessful campaign against Yushchenko.
Natural gas prices in western Europe rose after the shut off. The price for immediate delivery on the APX Gas Exchange was up 4.5 percent from yesterday to 67.10 pence per therm ($11.56 per million British Thermal Units) at 1:05 p.m. London time today. The contract trades around the clock.
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