Brussels (Platts)--13Jan2009

The international monitoring teams sent to the central dispatching
centers in Kiev and Moscow to monitor the resumption of Russian gas flows to
the EU are on site but have been denied access to the control rooms, an EC
official said Tuesday.

"Access to the control rooms are essential to know what is happening," EC
energy spokesman Ferran Tarradellas told reporters in Brussels. "We are asking
for full and free access to the control room for 24 hours a day."

Observers don't have access either to Russian gas company Gazprom's or
Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz' central dispatching control rooms in Moscow
and Kiev, said Tarradellas.

He added that the EU planned urgent high level contacts with both Russia
and Ukraine to resolve the problem.

And commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen said: "Our monitors
report that little or no gas is currently flowing, we are not jumping to
conclusion as why this is the case but this situation is serious and needs to
improve rapidly."

The observers were part of a deal agreed Monday by the EU, Russia and
Ukraine to ensure that Russian gas flows to the EU via Ukraine were restarted
Tuesday morning.

"Gas has started to flow in limited volumes at just one point," said
Tarradellas. "We don't know why access to the the control rooms has been
denied. It's in clear violation of the terms of reference [of Monday's
agreement on monitoring]."

Russian gas flows to the EU via Ukraine were halted last week after
Gazprom and Naftogaz failed to resolve a transit dispute by January 1.
--Siobhan Hall, siobhan_hall@platts.com