Russian gas marketer Gazprom has blamed early cold weather in Ukraine for a 2 week disruption in deliveries of Russian natural gas to western Europe.
Supplies were reportedly back to normal by Oct. 19.
Gazprom said deliveries, which flow from Tyumen gas fields in western Siberia across Russia, Ukraine, and Czechoslovakia, were disrupted because Ukrainian users took more than their normal share.
Russian flow to Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria is estimated at about 190 MMcfd, and unconfirmed reports put the cut in deliveries at about 50%.
Gazprom's Arnold Berdin, deputy chief of foreign relations, said more gas will be pumped into the pipeline from storage to offset the effects of the early cold weather.
Berdin said he remains optimistic about the performance of Russia's gas industry. "It remains the only branch in the crisis stricken Russian economy that keeps increasing production," he said.
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