INSTANT VIEW 2-Russia-Ukraine row hits European gas supplies

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt...

Jan 6 (Reuters) - Russia's gas dispute with Ukraine has cut supplies to Turkey and a swathe of European countries, threatening disruption as far west as Italy and Germany.

Following are comments from analysts:

DARKO KOVACIC, ANALYST AT RAIFFEISEN BANK IN MARIBOR, SLOVENIA:

"I believe this gas crisis will not have a big impact on the European Union's economy as the pressure of the EU on Russia and Ukraine is big, and this will result in the resumption of regular supplies."

SIMON BLAKEY, DIRECTOR OF EUROPEAN RESEARCH AT CAMBRIDGE ENERGY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES:

"Because Gazprom particularly had been giving lots of early warning through December that a problem was looming, precautions have been taken."

"If there are significant drops in supplies to the European Union, the key question is whether it goes on for a very long time. But it would have to go on for weeks or months for serious problems to arise for Western European customers."

"It is not clear how Ukraine is going to obtain cash to pay for gas deliveries in 2009 and beyond. Equally on the Russian side, the Russians are not financially in a position to be banker of last resort for the Ukrainians. Put those together and, because of the financial crisis, this is potentially a more intractable dispute than previous ones have been."

"There is a curious paradox: the tone of this dispute is more modest, and the operational and physical drama is comparable to previous disputes, but the underlying financial conditions are such that this is a difficult one to solve."