By FRANCES ROBINSON
Italy, Greece, Austria, Poland, Hungary and Romania are experiencing shortages of natural gas, the European Commission said Friday.
"There has been a decrease in gas deliveries," a spokeswoman for EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger told reporters.
"Russia needs more gas itself, they are having an extremely cold winter."
She said that while exact figures for Friday aren't yet available, Thursday's supplies from Russia to Austria declined 30%, to Italy by 24% and to Poland by 8%.
"It's also not an emergency yet, member states were able to buy gas from other countries," she said. "Storage facilities in the EU are full."
Still, the commission's gas co-ordination group is ready to meet if necessary. The group brings together industry, government and energy experts.
"We are gathering information...we are waiting to see how the markets handle this first." she said.
Dow Jones Newswires