The European Union is getting ready for a possible gas shortage this winter. Europe gets it's gas from Russia through gas contracts. The European Commission has a gas coordination commission that overseas the contracts. Russia is going through a colder than normal winter and therefore need more gas to keep it's citizens warm. The contracts say that Russia will send a certain percentage of the gas to European countries but there is also a part in there saying that if Russia needed to keep more gas for themselves they could. So since they need more gas for the winter, less is going to European countries. Their is a dispute between Russia and it's neighbor country Ukraine. Ukraine said that shipments of gas has been diminished by 15% and Russia says that Ukraine is keeping more gas than they should be and that's why Europe is getting less of it. Gas deliveries had gone down anywhere from 24 to 30% but there is still some gas coming in. This is thanks to the contracts which aim to prevent gas shortages like ones that had occurred twice in the last 10 years because of Russian and Ukranian disputes. The commission spokeswoman said that it's not an official crisis yet but they needed to be prepared for anything that might come along. The European nations have all said they will work together to provide the citizens with the fuel to heat their homes in the case of an emergency situation.
The significance of this event is that a gas shortage in Europe could affect millions of people by not having enough to keep their houses warm. This could also affect heating oil prices all over the world. This affects the economy heavily. If people have to pay more to heat their homes, then they will have less to spend on other things. This also highlights trade agreements between Europe and Russia.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_GAS_SUPPLIES?SITE=NCWIN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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