Slovak gas companies say they have considerably more gas in storage than last year

Bratislava, 15 January (CTK correspondent) – SPP, Slovakia’s largest natural gas supplier, has 70 percent more gas in storage than last year, SPP spokesperson Ondrej Šebesta told CTK. This is part of the company’s earlier measures taken in preparation for the halt to Russian gas supplies through Ukraine after the relevant contract between Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz expired. Gas transit through Ukraine ended at the beginning of this year, prompting Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico to criticize Kyiv and threaten retaliatory measures.

„In terms of security of supply, we currently have the largest volume of gas available in recent years, combining diversification contracts, secured transport routes and gas in storage,“ Šebesta said.

SPP, which has a 65 percent share of Slovakia’s gas supply market, therefore continues to guarantee secure gas supplies throughout this year, he said.

Šebesta said that SPP uses various options to secure gas supplies for its customers. „That means that one day we withdraw gas from storage and buy it under our contracts via the southern route, while on another day we will use the route through Austria or Czechia,“ he added.

SPP has previously said that using alternative routes will increase the company’s gas purchasing costs compared with supplies via Ukraine, mainly because of transit fees.

Czech Industry and Trade Minister Lukáš Vlček said over the past weekend that Slovakia had still not responded in any way to the Czech offer of gas transport and storage capacity. He offered the use of Czech infrastructure to his Slovak counterparts at the end of last year in response to the halt in gas transit to Slovakia through Ukraine.

According to data from the pan-European database, gas storage facilities in Slovakia are 69 percent full, less than at the same time last year, when they were around 77 percent full. Nevertheless, Slovakia’s gas reserves relative to the country’s consumption are among the highest in the EU. Experts say, however, that Slovak companies are not the only ones storing gas in Slovakia.

Data from Slovakia’s energy regulator ÚRSO show that the year before last, Slovak entities owned less than half of the gas stored in Slovakia. Slovak gas distributor SPP-distribúcia also had gas stored at the Dolní Bojanovice storage facility in Czechia in 2023 to meet its obligations.