SOFIA -- Bulgaria is suffering from a drastic fall in Russian natural gas supplies because Ukraine is tapping into pipelines crossing its territory, energy officials said Thursday.


Bulgargaz deputy director Alexander Belovezhdov said that gas volumes for Bulgaria and Romania had fallen Wednesday evening to 810,000 cubic meters per hour compared with normal supplies of 3.4 million cubic meters per hour.


Ukraine said Wednesday it had been diverting Russian gas exports meant for Western Europe to make up for cuts in regular supplies, but it did not mention the pipeline running south.


Russia's Gazprom cut supplies to Ukraine at the weekend after heavily indebted Kiev failed to renew 1994 supply contracts in time.


"I just had a meeting with a Gazprom official, who was asking us to decrease gas consumption further in order to ensure supplies for Turkey," Belovezhdov said Thursday.


Russian supplies of 18 to 20 million cubic meters per day are normally piped through Ukraine, Moldova and Romania and on southward via Bulgaria to Turkey.


Bulgarian industrial enterprises, such as its biggest oil refinery Neftohim, have been severely hit by the gas shortages.


Neftohim said it would be forced to use its own gas to make petrol for the local market instead of producing goods such as plastics for export.


Bulgaria's new Energy Committee chairman Lyulin Radulov has sent an urgent letter to his Ukrainian counterpart in which he asks for the gas supplies in the pipeline to be released.


Officials said that a three-day official visit by President Zhelyu Zhelev to Ukraine, which is scheduled to start Dec. 8, would involve discussions about Russian gas supplies as well as deliveries of high-quality Donbass coal.


Bulgaria's lack of energy resources leaves it vulnerable to shortages. In March it was hit by Moscow's cuts in gas supplies to Ukraine, which had not paid its bills.


Last month Bulgaria also suffered from sharply reduced volumes due to pipeline repairs on Moldova's territory.