Bosnia seeking natural gas from Germany's E.ON

SARAJEVO Jan 9 (Reuters) - Bosnia is negotiating a deal with German utility E.ON (EONGn.DE) on natural gas supply to ease shortages that have left 100,000 households cold and forced plants to halt work, its main gas operator said on Friday.

Bosnian imports of natural gas were cut off earlier this week when shipments of Russian gas via a pipeline that runs through Ukraine and Hungary were cut off.

"We are currently negotiating an urgent delivery of 1 to 1.5 million cubic metres of gas with E.ON and we are expecting it to be operational on Saturday," General Manager of BH Gas Almir Becarevic told Reuters.

He also said Serbiagas has pledged to provide another 0.5 million cubic metres of gas for Bosnia that could all together cover the needs of all individual consumers that depend solely on gas.

Bosnia uses around 350 million cubic metres of gas annualy which is imported from Russia via Ukraine and Hungary. The country has no gas reserves. Natural gas accounts for up to eight percent of Bosnia's energy use, energy officials say.

When the gas imports were halted on Tuesday in Bosnia, where many remember heatless winter nights during the 1992-95 war, more than 100,000 households were left without heating.

Bosnia's sole alumina plant Birac, majority owned by Lithuania's Ukio Bank Investment Group (UKB1L.VL) and located in the eastern town of Zvornik, halted production. The largest steel maker Arcelor Mittal Zenica, a unit of ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS), partially suspended operations.

Major industrial consumers switched to fuel oil and households to electricity, which put a strain on the power supply system.

The largest power utility Elektroprivreda BiH said the electricity consumption increased by eight percent in comparison to normal levels, while in Sarajevo, which is most affected by the gas disruption, it went up by 33 percent, said its general Manager Amer Jerlagic. (Reporting by Maja Zuvela; Editing by James Jukwey)