Will natural gas be flowing to Ukraine via Slovakia? In light of the recent political turmoil in Ukraine, the future of the project, planned to reduce Ukraine’s dependence on Russia is now being questioned.
EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger stated recently that the situation in Ukraine would not stop the Ukrainian-Slovak agreement. “We have a draft Memorandum of Understanding that the governments should agree to in the coming days”, he stated. However, the Slovak gas carrier Eustream is still waiting for the Ukrainian side to take a stance regarding this Memorandum. No new date has been set when the parties should sign the memorandum. Eustream spokesperson stated that currently it is impossible to say when it will be signed. Moreover, as the Memorandum is only a statement of intent, it’s signing would not necessarily imply that the project of supplying gas from Slovakia to Ukraine will become a reality. The feasibility of the project was further undermined by the fact that Russia supposedly agreed to reduce its price of gas for Ukraine by about one-third, to $268.50 USD per thousand cubic meters. “If the information about the discount is true, the economic logic of the project is questionable”, said energy analyst Peter Marcan from the Energy Security Institute.
The Slovak gas carrier has long declared that it is ready to start reverse gas flow to Ukraine. The two countries are linked by four gas pipelines. However, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico no longer believes in the project that has been in discussion for more than a year. About two weeks ago he said it was no longer necessary to discuss the topic of reverse flowing of natural gas through Slovakia to Ukraine at present.
