Slovakia’s state-owned gas buyer SPP said on Friday that Europe is not on the verge of reaching a deal to replace pipeline Russian gas with Azerbaijan’s gas.
Europe is scrambling to replace supply from Russia from January 1 because the remaining pipeline gas flows from Russia to the EU via the Ukraine transit route are set to stop from December 31 when the five-year transit deal with Ukraine expires.
Ukraine has already said on several occasions that it would not extend the current gas transit deal. Russia has signaled willingness to negotiate an extension of the deal, but Ukraine has been firm in saying it wouldn’t engage with Russia in discussions about prolonging the deal.
Several EU member states, including Slovakia and Hungary, continue to receive Russian pipeline gas via Ukraine, although Russia’s Gazprom has cut off many other EU customers from its supply.
Slovakia has said it would like to continue using the route via Ukraine.
The EU energy ministers have been discussing replacing Russia with Azerbaijan as a supplier, but no particular details have been revealed so far.
On Thursday, Bloomberg News reported, citing sources familiar with the plans, that companies from Hungary and Slovakia are close to signing a deal to receive 12-14 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from Azerbaijan.
However, Slovakia’s state-owned gas firm and buyer SPP told Reuters on Friday that there isn’t an imminent deal for replacing Russian gas.
“We regularly discuss the topic with our partners, but the information about the upcoming conclusion of a gas supply contract with the participation of SPP is not true,” SPP said in a statement to Reuters.
The EU is nowhere near an agreement on replacing Russian flows, and a possible deal could even be struck at the 11th hour or early next year, anonymous sources familiar with the discussions told Bloomberg last month.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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Publish date : 2024-11-01 09:30:00
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