January 1 Russian gas company Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in a dispute over debts and pricing, affecting about 20 European consumers that depend on Russia for a quarter of their natural gas. A similar gas row briefly disrupted supplies to Europe three years ago. Moscow and Kiev ended the contract row and Russian gas reached Europe via Ukraine for the first time on January 20. (Reuters)

January 2 The U.S. Energy Department issued a solicitation to purchase about 12 million barrels of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to replace supplies sold following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The department said it will also collect repayments from refiners that borrowed oil following hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008. Refiners are expected to return the 5.4 million barrels of oil released in the aftermath of Gustav and Ike, and 120,000 additional barrels required as payment for the loans, between January and May. (Reuters)