The biggest European customers for Russian gas, whose supplies are likely to be hit by the dispute between the Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom and Ukraine:

Germany, Gazprom's biggest customer, bought 34.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas in 2007, or 42 per cent of its annual consumption

Turkey overtook Italy as the second biggest Russian gas buyer in 2007 when it imported 23.4 bcm or 67 per cent of its annual consumption

Italy came third in 2007 with imports of 22 bcm or 28 per cent of annual consumption

Britain was absent from Gazprom's export map five years ago became its fourth largest export market in 2007 with a total of 15.2 bcm sold, representing 16 per cent of consumption. But Gazprom supplies Britain via complicated swap schemes, which means that Siberian gas molecules rarely reach British cities. It also supplies Britain with liquefied natural gas sourced from oil majors by swapping it against Russian pipeline gas in countries such as France or Italy

France, which had refrained from buying bigger volumes of Russian gas in past years, imported 10.1 bcm in 2007 or 24 per cent of its annual use

Central European states consume smaller volumes of Russian gas but are more dependent on it than West European states as it represents a larger proportion of their overall requirements

Hungary buys 7.5 bcm a year out of 11.8 bcm in total consumption, which makes it over 60 per cent reliant on Russian gas

The Czech Republic relies on Russia for 80 per cent of supplies and bought 7.2 bcm in 2007 while Poland relies on Russia for half its needs

Austria's purchase of 5.4 bcm equates to around 60 per cent of its requirements

Greece buys three quarters of its supplies from Russia, while Slovakia, Bulgaria, Finland and Bosnia rely almost totally on Russian gas.

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