Gas utility SPP now has a sufficient amount of natural gas in its storage tanks to provide for the next heating season, Economy Minister Richard Sulik and SPP general director Richard Prokypcak told a news conference on Tuesday. As they added, along with the reserves of other Slovak companies, consumption for all consumers, including companies, has been ensured.
Contrary to what Economy Minister Richard Sulik claims, the House Committee for Economic Affairs chairman Peter Kremsky declared on Tuesday that Slovakia does not have enough gas reserves to last through the whole winter season. According to him, the reserves have been growing, but it is necessary to keep accumulating them because the gas might completely stop flowing from Russia to Europe in the autumn, a scenario for which Slovakia must be prepared. Kremsky pointed to data on the AGSI gas utility website. It follows from this data that Slovakia consumes about 57 TWh annually, but has only about 23 TWh in its underground reservoirs at the moment. "I'm confident that if they continue doing this, they will manage to fill the reservoirs by the end of August with a sufficient volume to get us through the entire winter. But it's useless to mislead the people and calm them down prematurely with unsubstantiated claims," he said.
"Compared to the annual consumption we have 49 percent of the gas in storage tanks," said Sulik, adding that pumping more gas into storage tanks would not be effective. According to Sulik, SPP will buy more gas for storage only if it is cost-effective.
SPP claims it has managed to ensure a sufficient amount of gas for the coming months despite the fact that Russia's Gazprom halved the agreed level of supplies in mid-June. The decrease in supplies continued until the complete temporary shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline due to planned maintenance at the beginning of this week. SPP has signed contracts for importing liquefied natural gas by tankers and for supplies from the North Sea.
Source: TASR
