U.S. Army Captain Michael Kelvington, commander of the Battle company, 1-508 Parachute Infantry battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, bows next to remains of Gulam Dostager, a member of Afghan Local Police who was killed in the blast of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) during the joint Tor Janda (Black Flag in Pashtu) operation, in Zahri district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan May 25, 2012.  REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov  (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: MILITARY CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

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Members of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels fly over the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan as part of the 25th annual Fleet Week celebration in New York, May 23, 2012.  REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz (UNITED STATES - Tags: MILITARY ANNIVERSARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

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FACTBOX: Countries affected by Russia-Ukraine gas row

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Sat Jan 3, 2009 10:41am EST

(Reuters) - Following are comments from European customers affected on Saturday by the cut-off in gas supplies by Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom to its neighbor Ukraine over a pricing dispute:

ROMANIA - Economy Minister Adriean Videanu said Russian gas supplies remained around 30 percent lower on Saturday than the average daily level before the Ukrainian-Russian gas row, but Romanian consumers had not been affected as gas had been drawn from storage facilities to make up the shortfall. Romania produces 65 percent of its consumption from local gas fields and imports around one third from Russia.

BULGARIA - Bulgargaz CEO Dimitar Gogov said supply levels had not fallen below a critical level but further reductions could force the company to introduce restrictions for customers. "The pipeline pressure has dropped and we are getting smaller deliveries as of Saturday morning," Gotov told Reuters.

CZECH REPUBLIC - Martin Chalupsky, spokesman of RWE Transgas, the gas pipeline operator in the Czech Republic, said "We are without impact. We received a confirmation for 100 percent for today, so we are without problems today ... "The problems are on the south pipeline in Hungary and Romania and so on. The main pipeline through Slovakia, Czech Republic and Germany are now without problems."

HUNGARY

Pressure in Hungary's gas pipeline from Russia via Ukraine fell on Friday but is now rising, though not yet to the contracted level, and gas shipments are in line with the contract, oil/gas firm MOL said. FGSZ Foldgazszallito Zrt, the gas transmission subsidiary of MOL, said "...Pressure (in the pipeline) is not yet up to the contracted level, but it is rising continuously, and stood at 45 bars at 0900 GMT," FGSZ Zrt. said. "Shipments are at the moment coming in line with the contract," it said.

POLAND

Poland said gas deliveries via Ukraine had fallen 11 percent, 5 million cubic meters a day, on top of a six percent reduction on Friday, but were being made up by deliveries through Belarus. "The change in deliveries is not being felt by Polish natural gas consumers," gas operator Gaz System and gas monopoly PGNiG in a joint statement.

FRANCE - A spokeswoman for France's main gas group GDF-Suez said she has had no indication of any abnormal incidents or supply disruptions and the system was working normally.

GERMANY - "We are getting all the gas we've ordered," though there has been a slight decrease in pressure in the pipeline through Ukraine from Russia, a spokesman for leading German gas importer E.ON Ruhrgas said. This was apparently because only Russian gas destined for western Europe was being delivered through the pipeline and no longer gas for Ukraine.

TURKEY

"There is no problem (in supplies) and we do not expect any. We will not have the same problems we experienced in early January in previous years," an Energy Ministry official told Reuters. Turkey has enough gas stockpiled to cope with any problems, a senior official at state energy company Botas said.

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