| All Serbian gas supplies cut |
| 6 January 2009 | 16:15 -> 19:23
| Source:
B92, Beta, Tanjug |
BELGRADE --
Serbia’s supply of gas from Russia coming via Ukraine and Hungary have been completely suspended, says Srbijagas CEO Dušan Bajatović.
He explained that this took place at 15:30 CET, and that the amounts of gas the country has will last only for the next several hours.
All consumers in Serbia have been asked to urgently halt natural gas consumption in order to minimize the damage.
Meanwhile in Belgrade, a crisis headquarters coordinated by Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković announced that Serbia has sufficient amounts of heating oil and that the stability of the electric power delivery is on a high level.
The government's press office also stated tonight in Belgrade that the body, set up to monitor the gas crisis, is in a constant session. Serbians have been asked to save on all types of energy in order to overcome the current crisis.
The cabinet met in a telephone session this Christmas Even to adopt a number of measures to protect Serbia's energy system, the statement also said. The measures include obligatory replacement of natural gas with other sources of energy, and import of additional amounts of electricity.
Earlier in the day, Bajatović warned of the possibility of a complete suspension of supply from Russia over the Ukraine-Russian price dispute, calling on all companies in Serbia who were able to use heating oil to do so.
Serbia is contractually due to receive a daily supply of 10 million cubic meters of gas from Russia.
All major gas consumers have been shut down, smaller plants have been asked to close down their furnaces themselves, while urban thermal power plants are moving on to crude, where possible.
The Russo-Ukrainian gas dispute is assuming the dimensions of a regional crisis. Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and all the Balkan countries have been left entirely without gas or on minimum supply.
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