Slovakia has yet to respond to gas transit offer; Czechia is ready

Slovakia has not yet responded to the Czech offer to provide gas transmission capacity. If there is interest, Czech infrastructure is ready to supply gas to Slovakia immediately, without any need for further modifications, Czech Industry and Trade Ministry spokesman Marek Vošahlík told the CTK news agency today.

At the end of last year, Industry and Trade Minister Lukáš Vlček (STAN) offered Slovakia domestic gas transmission and storage capacity in a letter to Slovak Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Denisa Saková. He did so in response to the halt in gas transit to Slovakia via Ukraine.

The offer applies to the coming spring as well as a longer-term period. „At this point, we have received no response to the offer from Slovakia,“ Vošahlík said.

If Slovakia expresses interest, the domestic gas infrastructure, operated by state-owned company Net4Gas, is ready to start transmitting gas east immediately, without any need for further modifications, according to the ministry.

„The capacity of the Lanžhot exit station is around 1200 gigawatt-hours (GWh) per day, while Slovakia is estimated to need around 150 to 200 GWh per day,“ Vošahlík noted.

He said the commercial terms would be governed by the Energy Regulatory Office’s price decision and European legislation.

On Wednesday, Ukraine ended the transit of Russian gas to the EU and Moldova after the five-year contract between Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz expired. Kyiv, which has faced a Russian military invasion for almost three years, did not extend the agreement.

Slovak Gas Industry (SPP), the country’s largest natural gas seller, which is controlled by the state, told CTK today that it is currently using gas purchase contracts secured through diversification agreements. SPP described the TurkStream pipeline route through Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary as important, saying it can carry both Russian and Azerbaijani gas. SPP has also used routes from Croatia and Italy in the past.

The EU Council’s energy working group, comprising experts from the relevant ministries of EU countries and their Permanent Representations to the European Union, will discuss the impact of the halt in Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine at an extraordinary meeting on Friday. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has been among those warning of particularly severe consequences from the halt in gas transit. According to CTK sources, a meeting between representatives of Slovakia, the European Commission and Ukraine is also expected to take place next Tuesday.

The Czech Republic currently receives gas from the west, with gas from Norway and LNG from a terminal in the Netherlands flowing through Germany. As recently as the end of last year, Russian gas transiting Slovakia accounted for the overwhelming majority of supplies to the Czech Republic.

According to data published today by the Industry and Trade Ministry, domestic gas storage facilities are 63 percent full. They hold more than 2.19 billion cubic metres of gas, less than at the same time last year. At that point, the facilities held more than three billion cubic metres of gas and were 88 percent full.