Eastern European countries just downstream of the Ukrainian border, Hungary and Austria in particular, have boosted their natural gas stocks considerably — to as high as 97% of capacity — to hedge themselves against any disruption to Russian gas supply. Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience. Register Now The current 10-year gas supply and transit deal between Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz expires at the end of 2019 and there is concern that, without a new contract from January 1, Russian gas transit via Ukraine could be disrupted. Several rounds of talks have taken place between the two companies in recent weeks, but disagreements over debts, transit tariffs and several legal disputes between the two state-owned entities are militating against a deal. No preliminary agreement has yet been reached, and no date has been set for the next round of talks with the European Commission […]