Slovakia's gas importer takes two-thirds of gas from non-Russian sources this year
Slovakia's dominant gas importer SPP has received just 33% of its supplies so far this year from Russia, and the rest from other suppliers, Economy Minister Denisa Sakova said on Friday.
Slovakia has been rearranging its supplies after Ukraine stopped transit of Russian gas in January this year, but has been keen to continue receiving gas under its contract with Russia's Gazprom through the Turkstream pipeline and Hungary.
The low Russian volumes represent a significant drop from 2024, when Russian gas made up the bulk of SPP's supply.
The Russian gas volumes were limited by available capacity on a pipeline through Hungary that was fully booked, Sakova told reporters, adding that Hungary had given up some capacity on that route to be used for supplies for Slovakia.
"Honestly, when we could use the largest possible volume of gas from the Gazprom contract, we tried to use it," she said.
Slovakia has said Russian gas is cheaper than alternative volumes, mainly because Gazprom bears the transit fees along the route.
The central European country, which has been keen to keep warm relations with Russia and also takes Russian oil, has said it would suffer from the European Union's plans for forcing an end of Russian energy imports from 2028, fearing rising costs and supply bottlenecks as well as potential arbitration by Gazprom.
The EU has been working to phase out Russian energy imports after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Sakova and SPP said the company has secured sufficient storage and diversification volumes and routes to cover 2026 needs, through contracts with Western energy firms and European pipeline operators.
SPP covers about two-thirds of Slovakia's gas consumption, which is around 4.5 Bm3y.
Sakova said the country was also in talks with Poland and Lithuania on creating a "northern corridor" for supplies of U.S. liquefied natural gas through Baltic sea terminals and Poland to Slovakia and Ukraine, confirming a Reuters report.
She said the plan required an agreement on fees to make the route competitive versus supplies from Greece but hoped talks may lead to a compromise in the coming months.
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