Governments in more than a dozen countries in Central and South Eastern Europe responded variously with emergency talks, protest notes, restrictions on energy usage and switches to alternative supplies as crisis around the severance of gas from Russia deepened.

Countries now affected by reductions and cut-off of supply are reported to include Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.

Bulgarian news agency BTA reported on January 7 that large industrial enterprises would have their natural gas consumption restricted from that day.

Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov, speaking to journalists after meeting representatives of major gas consumers in Bulgaria, said that the affected enterprises included companies using more than 25 million cu m of gas a year, thermal power plants and gas distribution companies. The cap on consumption will be equal to the volumes used at 6am on January 6, Dimitrov said. He said that total consumption at that time was 5.7 million cu m of gas.

From Belgrade, Serbian news agencies reported official sources as saying that the country's gas supplies were diminishing rapidly, but it had enough heating oil and the electricity supply was stable. Prime minister Mirko Cvetkovic has set a crisis headquarters in operation and the Serbian government has asked people to minimise energy use.

All major gas consumers in Serbia had been shut down, smaller plants have been asked to close down their furnaces themselves, while urban thermal power plants were moving on to crude, where possible, Serbian news website B92 said.

In Skopje, Macedonian television station Kanal 5 reported that Macedonia along with other countries in the region was to send a note of protest to Russia and Ukraine about their gas supplies being suspended.

Macedonia's government was reportedly to provide additional imports of oil to heating utilities while other companies were switching from gas to oil.

Poland and Slovenia were among countries that confirmed that their supplies of gas from Russia via Ukraine had been cut off on January 7. Poland, however, said that imports via Belarus were at unchanged levels.

On January 7, Greek daily Adesmeftos Typos said that the country would run out of natural gas if the cut-off of supply from Russia via Ukraine and Bulgaria continued for 10 further days.

From Budapest, Interfax Central Europe reported on January 7 that Hungary had imposed restrictions on natural gas consumption by large industrial, agricultural and commercial consumers, according to Hungary's gas pipeline operator Foldgazszallito.

In Bucharest, Romanian daily Cotidianul said that Romanian officials were optimistic about the country's gas resources being able to last at least two months.

Romanian media reported that economy minister Adrian Vidyanu had convened an emergency meeting at the country's economy ministry, to be attended by representatives of Gazprom and Romanian fuel companies.

Vidyanu said that Romania would have no problems, but would reduce consumption of gas in thermal power plants, which will use alternative fuels.
 
News agency Reuters reported that Russia's Gazprom had said on January 7 that it had increased supplies to the European Union and Turkey to about 200 million cu m a day via alternative routes.