Europe's lethal deep freeze of recent weeks has caused turmoil in the natural gas supply, particularly with the vital imports from Russia via Gazprom, which accounts for around a quarter of Europe's supply. Russia's gas deliveries to Romania are not yet up to the contracted level, even though they are increasing, according to the European Commission. The EC waded in, but supply problems appear to have eased slightly, according to EC spokesperson Marlene Holzner. Supplies are said to have returned to normal in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Austria, Poland and Greece. However, the Romanian Economy Ministry announced last week-end that gas imports from Russia were at the expected levels.

Demand has risen sharply as temperatures have plummeted and domestic demand in Russia led President Putin to order a 'home supply first' policy. Russia and the Ukraine earlier had a spat, with the Ukrainians saying Russia had cut supplies and the Russians accusing the Ukrainians of taking more than their share.

Gazprom vice-president Aleksandr Kruglov has since admitted that gas deliveries were down 10 percent for several days, but said the delivered volume was now back to normal.  However, Italy, France, and Germany are still reporting shortages. Increased demand has caused a price spikes of up to 39 percent.

Romania used more than 70 million cubic meters of gas a day in the last couple of days, a record level. Imports covered 25 percent of the consumption. The country's natural gas consumption was of 13.8 billion cubic meters in 2010. Up to 80 percent of the consumption is covered by internal sources, while the rest is imported, mostly from Russia.

The country is under a Code Orange for snow and blizzard until Wednesday (February 8 ) and under a Code Yellow for low temperatures until Sunday (February 12). Read more about it here. 

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com