Experts from Europe monitor flow

Ian Traynor in Prague and Luke Harding in Moscow
The Guardian, Saturday 10 January 2009

European energy experts took up positions last night to monitor the flow of natural gas through Ukraine from Siberia to Europe, in the hope of securing an end to the energy crisis triggered by a bitter dispute between Moscow and Kiev.
Ten days after Russia's giant gas monopoly, Gazprom, cut supplies to Ukraine because of the row over prices and three days after the Russians stopped sending all gas to and through Ukraine, Brussels demanded that Moscow honour its side of a deal struck on Thursday and turn the gas back on.
With temperatures plunging to -20C (-4F) in parts of eastern and southern Europe which have been receiving no gas since Wednesday, hopes were high that regular central heating systems would resume normal operations soon.
But gas experts meeting in Brussels said that once the Russians resumed pumping gas, it would take 30 hours to reach Ukraine and a further 36 hours to reach the first EU countries, such as Slovakia, bordering Ukraine. It would be at least three days before normal gas supplies were restored.
The Gazprom chief, Alexei Miller, said supplies would resume when the agreement on the monitors was finalised. "Immediately after that we will renew deliveries," he said.
But the Russians continued to haggle over details of the monitoring mission and Czech officials mediating the agreement indicated there could still be snags.
The first of 22 experts from European gas companies and the European commission went to Kiev to start monitoring the flow of Russian fuel through Ukraine.
The Czech prime minister and EU president, Mirek Topolanek, also went to Kiev to try to ensure there were no hiccups.
A senior Ukrainian diplomat warned that any resumption of gas deliveries to Europe would be "temporary". There could be no lasting solution to the gas crisis until Ukraine had reached a bilateral deal with Moscow over the price of Russian gas supplied to its own consumers, he said.
"We will not allow our people to freeze because Europeans feel a little cold," the diplomat said. "It's very unfortunate. For the moment we can let gas flow and slug it out [with Russia]. But this is temporary. We can't guarantee it will continue."
Of the Siberian gas passing through Ukraine, about a quarter is sold to Ukraine, and the rest is bought by European countries - 80% of the gas Europe buys from Russia.
With Moscow and Kiev engaged in a bad-tempered blame game, the monitors will try to establish facts about the gas supply. They are there purely to ensure that Europe gets its gas, not to referee the dispute between Russia and Ukraine.