Romania's Neighbors...

aren't really being friendly right now. (To put it in Caleb's language.)
Russia says Ukraine is stealing gas, Ukraine says that what they are taking is allowed under their contract. News can't really find the absolute truth - only those dealing directly with this situation in both those countries really know what's going on. What the rest of us know is he said - she said and the effects of the decisions they have made. Which, this time round, is hitting pretty hard in a very real way in Europe. Russia decided to cut us all off from importing their natural gas because of their issues with Ukraine. Nice. Bulgaria and Poland are pretty much without any gas at this point. Romania's temperatures have been at about 10 F, before windchill, steady so you can only imagine what no heat in weather like this is for the people of Bulgaria and Poland.
Now, onto how this affects Romania. I actually hadn't heard about it at all (yikes) until a friend brought it up at lunch today. Then I came home and found an e-mail from some friends wanting to know if there was any heat in Marghita. I figured I'd better go read what was happening : )
I found out some really interesting facts about Romania's natural gas industry and importing on some Romanian news sites. All which helped explain why there really isn't anyone talking about a gas crisis here (and why it hasn't hit us in Marghita.)

Here's the deal :

Conflictul dintre Gazprom si Naftogaz incepe sa afecteze si Romania, ieri compania ruseasca sistand furnizarea de gaze naturale prin statia Isaccea. O treime din gazul consumat in Romania vine din Rusia. Daca situatia persista, Romania poate compensa deficitul de gaz din depozitele subterane, aflate in cea mai mare parte in proprietatea Romgaz, companie de stat. In prezent, capacitatea Romgaz este de 2,8 miliarde metri cubi, iar oficialii societatii spun ca depozitele sunt pline. In lipsa importurilor, aceasta cantitate acopera consumul normal pentru cel putin patru luni. Intr-un scenariu optimist, potrivit ministrului Economiei, Adriean Videanu, cantitatea de gaze stocata poate asigura consumul Romaniei chiar si pentru sase luni.

Okay, so what does that say?
The conflict is beginning to affect Romania as well because yesterday the Russians shut down the station from which Romania gets their imported gas (The Isaccea Station...located on the Black Sea.) A third of all consumed gas in Romania is imported and comes from Russia. If the situation persists, Romania can compensate for the gas deficit from subterranean deposits. These deposits are found mainly on the property of Romgaz, a national Romanian company. Presently the Romgaz capacity is 2.8 billion metric cubes but officials say that the deposits are full. If having to make up for the missing imported gas, this quantity can cover the normal gas consumption (for Romanians) for at least 4 months. In an optimistic scenario the Minister of Economy, Adriean Videanu, says that the stocked gas could assure Romania's consumption for even 6 months.

To sum it all up.
Kelsey's apartment, and the rest of Romania, has heat for at least another 4 months, maybe 6, despite being cut off by Russia and the possibility of still being cut off for awhile.

Sure wish I could share some with Bulgaria...oh gosh those people are really suffering right now.