Russian gas supplies to Bulgaria, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Greece reached normal levels over the weekend and gas deliveries to Romania, Germany and Italy are rising, European Commission press secretary Marlene Holzner said on Monday.
Some European countries said late last week they faced shortfalls in Russian natural gas supplies amid a severe cold spell across Europe, with temperatures plunging to minus 30 degrees Centigrade.
Holzner said on Friday that Russia had cut gas supplies to nine European countries from Wednesday, with the shortfall reaching 30 percent in Slovakia, Austria and Italy.
Gazprom Deputy Chairman Andrei Kruglov said on Saturday that Russia had cut gas deliveries to West Europe by some 10 percent over the past few days but gas supplies returned to normal levels after that.
At the same time, Italian Minister of Economic Development, Infrastructure and Transport Corrado Passera said that gas deliveries to Italy were critically low.
"The situation is rather critical as Russia and France reduced gas supplies but we control (the situation)," Passera was quoted by TMNews agency as saying, adding that natural gas supplies from other states, including Africa, were stable.
Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told TMNews that the worst was over.
"The situation with gas supplies to the European countries is not critical, we are doing all our best (to stabilize deliveries)," Kupriyanov said.
But lower Russian gas supplies may lead to difficulties this Thursday, Paolo Scaroni, chief executive officer in Italy's leading energy company Eni, told La Stampa newspaper.
"We are receiving 25-30 percent less gas from Russia through Ukraine now. This happens as Italy's gas consumption has reached a record 440 million cubic meters used in one day," Scaroni said.
According to Italian pipeline operator Snam Rete Gas, the country did not receive 29.6 percent of contracted volumes last week.
"We will have no problems until Wednesday but from Thursday we expect a new wave of cold and we do not know how Gazprom will react," Scaroni added.
