Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler confirmed on Tuesday that the flow of natural gas from the western line of Russia to Turkey completely stopped, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

"The amount of natural gas, which flows from western line of Russia, dropped first to 32 million cubic meters and then to 17 million cubic meters. Currently, the natural gas inflow through Ukraine has completely stopped," the report quoted Guler, adding that the ministry had already taken necessary measures.

"There are also other measures. We increased the daily amount of natural gas received from Blue Stream line of Russia and we have started to use underground storage and LNG (liquefied natural gas) resources," he said.

According to the report, the amount of natural gas Turkey received from Blue Stream line increased from 40 million cubic meters to 48 million cubic meters a day after the cut.

Meanwhile, the minister said that daily amount of natural gas coming from Iran was 15 million cubic meters.

Iran might be able to increase its natural gas supplies to Turkey if a shortfall comes due to inadequate Russian gas supplies, said the report, quoting Iranian embassy source.

Earlier on Tuesday, Bulgaria's economy ministry said Russian gas supplies to Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Macedonia via Ukraine were fully stopped.

Russia, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas, cut shipments to Ukraine on January 1, in a repetition of a 2006 dispute which also interrupted supplies to Europe.

(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2009)