The International Energy Agency said today that the interruption of gas supplies to Europe was totally unacceptable and urged Russian company Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine to resume pumping urgently.
And the European Union gave Moscow and Kiev a day to work out their gas dispute, accusing the two sides of taking its supplies hostage in the dead of winter.
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the bloc's presidency, warned that the EU would toughen its response to the gas crisis with unspecified actions if the flow to Europe were not restored by tomorrow.
'If the supply is not restored by tomorrow we will see a stronger intervention from the EU presidency and the EU as such,' he said, without detailing what form the tougher action would take.
All deliveries of Russian gas through Ukrainian pipelines were halted today, officials from Moscow and Kiev said as the two sides trade blame for the cuts.
European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso ratchetted up pressure on Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko to restore supplies.
'It is unacceptable that the EU's gas supply security is being taken hostage to negotiations between Russia and Ukraine,' commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen said Barroso had told Putin and Tymoshenko during telephone calls. 'The two countries' reputation as reliable partners to the EU is at stake and Ukraine and Russia must find a stable and long-term solution on how to guarantee reliable gas supplies to the European Union,' she added.
Russia is the world's biggest natural gas producer and provides about one-quarter of the gas used in the European Union, or about 40% of the gas the bloc imports. Some 80% of those imports pass though Ukraine.
At least eleven European states, including Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were reporting complete halts of Russian gas supplies today amid freezing temperatures of almost -25 degrees Celsius.
While the EU has repeatedly refused to referee what it sees as a commercial dispute between Moscow and Kiev, the commission proposed sending observers to Ukraine to measure the flow of natural gas arriving from Russia.
Bord Gáis said yesterday that there is no indication that Ireland's gas supplies will be affected by the dispute between Russia and Ukraine. Ireland's gas supply is sourced from the Kinsale gas field and British and Norwegian gas fields in the North Sea.
