ACADEMY OF ECONOMIC STUDIES BUCHAREST

THE GAS CRISIS

TEACHER : ALAMA MADALINA STUDENT : CALINA ELENA ALEXANDRA SERIES A,GROUP 603

JANUARY 2009

THE GAS CRISES

I have chosen these theme because is the most important problem in this moment. The gas crises affect many European countries. In the next lines I will try to explain this crisis, how it started and its consequences, which affect our country and many other European countries. First of all, the dispute started between Russia and Ukraine. Russia blame Ukraine for stealing a part of the gas, meant for other European countries, from the pipelines which are passing through its country. Russia requires to Ukraine to pay its invoices for the gas delivered in the 2 last months and to pay, beginning with this year a bigger price for the gas. Because Ukraine refuses to pay more, Gazprom almost double the price of the gas. But this dispute has hidden reasons. Kurt Volker, the US ambassador to NATO maintains this statement: "There is a commercial dispute at the heart of this, but this also has political overtones because we have seen Russia over time using such events to gain political leverage". The first reason is that Russia hopes to gain political support for its new projects, the North Stream pipe, through Baltic Sea and the South Stream, through Black Sea, avoiding Ukraine.

The second reason is that Russia tries to increase the price of the gas because Russian energy giants are in financial trouble and they badly need money. Moreover, Russian-Ukrainian relations have been terrible of late; Moscow has accused Kiev of arming the Georgians during the August 2008 war, so Russia has little reason to keep subsiding Ukraine's gas. Much of Europe gets its gas from Russia through Ukraine and they are being affected by the dispute. Bulgaria, the Baltics, Slovakia and Hungary are almost 100% dependent on Russia for gas and some places have had no gas for more than 24 hours. Romania, reduced. Now, I will try to expose the main consequences of this problem of the gas. First of all, this crisis affect the economy of each of these European countries because of this crisis of gas, many factories, hospitals and schools are closed. The most important thing is to protect the people and many countries were forced to close down the industry. There are enterprises which have closed their activity for an undetermined period of time to reduce the consumption of the gas. But this decision has a negative impact over the people too, because many people who were gaining their existence Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Greece,

Macedonia, Serbia, and Austria have also had their supplies

working

in

those

factories

have

lost

their

jobs

for

an

undetermined period of time. Moreover, there have been very high levels of gas demand because of the very cold weather. Hundreds of thousands of homes in Eastern Europe are without heat as the Russia-Ukraine energy crisis and freezing weather continues. Also many hospitals and schools were closed and trees were felled to keep home fires burning after Russia turned off the gas taps to more than a dozen countries. In conclusion, that crisis of the gas caused by the dispute between Russia and Ukraine is a clear demonstration of the dependence of the Continent on Russian gas supplies. The Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute is turning from a bilateral spat into a regional crisis. This dispute affects more than 15 European countries. Because of this, many homes remains without heat, many factories, hospitals, schools are closed, many trees are felled. We hope that Russia and Ukraine will resolve their problems soon, otherwise the consequences will be fatal, things will get worse.

Bibliography

www.adevarul.ro www.mediafax.ro www.antena3.ro www.realitatea.net www.curierulnational.ro www.evz.ro