Slovakia ready to enable Ukraine role in boosting EU gas storage, PM says
Slovakia is ready to hold technical discussions with Ukraine so the country's natural gas storage capacity can be used to bolster European reserves, Slovakia's Prime Minister Eduard Heger said Friday following the EU Council summit in Brussels.
"Ukraine has a long-term interest in working with energy solutions, including storage," Heger said on his Facebook page quoted by S&P Global Platts.
"As Slovakia, we are ready to discuss technical solutions with [Ukraine] because it would be appropriate for the future to provide increased gas reserves for the EU," Heger said.
The prime minister noted in a pre-summit press conference that Ukraine had considerable storage capacity of up to 30 billion cubic meters (bcm), and Slovakia was ready to use its transit capabilities to help deliver stocks.
The Slovak leader also called on the EU to establish a minimum gas storage reserve in case of severe winter conditions. Slovakia is one of the main transit countries for Russia n gas supplies to Western Europe. It also has more limited reverse capacity for shipping gas in the opposite direction from Western Europe to Ukraine.
The country has been one of the main opponents of Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany, fearing it would reduce East-West volumes of Russian gas through its pipelines and undermine the earnings of its gas pipeline company Eustream.
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