Russian President Vladimir Putin has assured Slovakia that Russia’s Gazprom will find alternative ways to deliver contracted gas to Slovakia following the cessation of transit through Ukraine, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced on Friday.
Fico met with Putin in Moscow on December 22 to discuss gas supplies and the ongoing war in Ukraine after Ukraine decided to halt Russian gas flows through its territory starting January 1. Slovakia, which relies on Russian gas, has been seeking to maintain its supply routes to keep costs down and continue earning revenue from gas transit to Europe.
“I spoke to Putin about a contract between us and Gazprom, which says that they have to somehow deliver the gas to us,” Fico told a parliamentary committee. “We are able to push something through the southern flow (route through Turkey), but so far we have storage, Slovak consumption is secured.”
Fico stated that Putin guaranteed Russia would meet its obligations, although the capacity in the TurkStream pipeline and connecting routes through Turkey to Europe is limited. “President Putin guaranteed that they will honour their commitments,” Fico said.
Part of the gas could be delivered through western Europe, Fico mentioned, referring to Slovakia’s pipeline connections to gas networks of central and west European neighbors.
Fico argued that Europe suffered multi-billion euro losses from a rise in gas prices caused by the absence of around 13.5 billion cubic meters of gas that flowed through Ukraine last year, including around 3 bcm for Slovak consumption.
Fico also noted that an agreement had been close to continuing shipments through Ukraine with Russian gas changing ownership before entering Ukraine under an arrangement involving Azerbaijan or the Slovak gas importer SPP. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected extending any gas flows through Ukraine at the EU’s December summit