Russia's Gazprom said its daily supplies of natural gas to countries outside of the former Soviet Union have reached a record high due to cold weather in Europe.

Gazprom pumped 615.5 million cubic metres of gas to countries outside the former USSR borders on January 6, beating its previous record hit on January 5 by nearly 1 million cubic metres.

"We have reached a totally new level of gas exports in conditions of a cold snap, lower extraction volumes in Europe and higher demand for gas on the energy market," Gazprom's CEO Alexei Miller said in a statement.

Gazprom delivers around a third of EU's gas, and the recent spike in European demand boosted Gazprom's supplies through Nord Stream pipeline to an all-time high of 165.2 million cubic metres in the past few days, up from 160.75 million cubic metres on January 1, Gazprom said.

The current volumes of gas supply, if extrapolated throughout the year, exceed the Nord Stream's projected volumes by 10 per cent, Miller said.

Weather causes chaos in Turkey

Meanwhile, a snowstorm forced the closure of Turkey's key shipping straits and sweeping flight cancellations, while hazardous roads left many drivers stranded overnight in Istanbul, a city of 15 million people.

Turkish Airlines cancelled hundreds of flights in and out of the city's main Ataturk airport and state-run Anadolu news agency said dozens of planes were diverted to other airports because of the heavy snowfall, which began on Friday evening.

About 6,000 of its passengers were transferred to hotels on Friday evening due to the cancellations and 20,000 meals were distributed to those stranded at the airport, Anadolu said.

Pegasus Airlines cancelled some 200 flights in and out of Sabiha Gokcen airport, on the Asian side of the city.

Malta is also experiencing below average temperatures this weekend. 

Smoke from chimneys billows over the rooftops of downtown Prague.