LONDON: Britain is well placed to deal with the possibility of a Russian cutoff of gas to Europe during the Ukraine crisis, because it receives most of its imports from Norway and has significant domestic reserves.

As relations worsen between Kiev and Moscow, European gas customers fear that Russia could cut off exports to Ukraine, which is an important transit route for natural gas to the European Union.

Russia supplies around a third of Europe’s gas, some 40 per cent of which it ships through Ukraine. Gazprom has threatened to cut supplies if Ukraine continues to fail to pay its bills and has warned of a possible reduction in onward deliveries to Europe.

Although Britain does not import Russian gas directly, it does receive some gas from the continent, to which Russia exports over 160 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year.