Gazprom Warns of Fuel CrisisMeanwhile Chubais has spent the summer warning of a lack of gas to heat and light us over the winter.
Reuters
Gazprom on Thursday called for the state to step in to prevent a repeat of last year's winter fuel crisis, which it said was likely because of a poor state of readiness in the regions.
Gazprom, which supplies one-quarter of Europe's gas needs, had to restrict deliveries to some of its European customers last year to ensure there were sufficient supplies for domestic users who were enduring an exceptionally cold winter.
“The unsatisfactory current level of reserve fuel stocks in the regions causes serious concern. There is a threat of a repeat of last winter's events, when many regions turned out to be unprepared for a sharp decline in temperatures,” Gazprom said in a statement.
“The situation that has developed requires immediate intervention by state regulatory bodies.”
Gazprom had to briefly cut its gas supplies on the route to Hungary by 20 percent in January, and said it could also reduce flows to Italy and Austria, although it said it has never fallen below its contractual obligations.
It soon restored supplies to 7 percent above contractual volumes to European customers and 40 percent more than the contracted amount to Russia.
The company said it planned to significantly raise investment in 2007 -- to 531.78 billion rubles ($19.82 billion) compared with 373.14 billion rubles planned this year. It also slightly increased its 2006 production forecast by 3 billion cubic meters to 551 bcm.
So what odds on a Moscow blackout? If not Moscow then where?
[composed and posted with ecto]
1 comment:
This issue may be analogized to the infrastructure problem where roads are concerned. Now we are seeing massive traffic jams in Moscow, to the extent that the Spartak soccer team had to flee their bus and jump on the subway in order to make it to their match. Even with a tiny fraction of the cars-to-people ratio of the West, Moscow still can't handle its traffic.
The situation won't be any different with electricty. Between Russia's simple incompetence and the Kremlin's hoarding of national resources to prop up the dictatorship (maybe even its intentional desire to turn the lights off every once in a while, just for the shock value to further awe the population, knowing there will be no resistance), blackouts are as inevitable as the rise of AIDS and the decline of the population.
Still, you'd expect Moscow elitism to foist the burden on other regions first. If it can't even do that, Russia is already "Zaire with permafrost."
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