EC and Russian Gas: The game with changing rules

Yuriy Barsukov, the business department observer, interprets the energy crisis the European way.

The EU could easily survive the termination of monthly deliveries of Russian gas through the Ukraine and cope even in the case of a longer fault, though not without some problems. Such conclusions had been made on the results of the stress tests of the European energy system, Claudio De Vincenti, the Deputy Minister of Energy of Italy,that he stated yesterday. He gave no details, in particular, what urgent measures are necessary to be taken in the event of the disruption, and which countries will be affected first. Mr. De Vincenti stated that the EU would be able to use its gas reserves in the underground storages in, to increase the purchase of liquefied natural gas and to diversify their supplies.