THE SITUATION concerning gas supplies for the Visegrad Four (V4) countries is currently better than it was in 2009, officials in charge of energy in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland concurred in Bratislava on November 24, the TASR newswire reported.
Slovak Economy Minister Pavol Pavlis, Czech Trade and Industry Minister Jan Mládek, Hungarian National Development Minister Miklós Seszták and State Secretary at the Polish Economy Ministry Tomasz Tomczykiewicz met up for the 8th Central European Energy Conference CEEC 2014. The conference is being held in Bratislava between November 23-25.
“My colleagues and myself have concurred that, as far as energy security goes, the V4 countries are in a better position now than during the gas crisis of 2009,” said Pavlis, as quoted by TASR. “This has been aided by joint measures including reverse gas flows and new gas connections.”
V4 representatives at the conference also welcomed an agreement between Ukraine, Russia and the European Union on gas supplies to Ukraine for the upcoming winter, because secure gas supplies for Ukraine and the secure transport of gas across Ukraine is an important pre-requisite for the security of gas supplies in the whole V4 region, according to Pavlis.
Head of national oil and gas company of Ukraine Naftogaz Andriy Kobolyev when speaking at conference, said that Ukraine is insisting that Slovakia begins a so-called ‘large reverse gas flow’.
“We believe that there’s potential to remove the ‘narrowness’ that is represented by the absence of a full-fledged two-way connection between Ukraine and Slovakia,” said Kobolyev, as quoted by TASR.
When speaking about Slovakia’s energy mix, Pavlis said that nuclear energy will form the basis of Slovakia’s energy mix in the long term.
“The basis of Slovakia’s power engineering and energy mix will be formed in the long term by the nuclear component, Pavlis said, as quoted by TASR, “which we view as a stable energy commodity enjoying features of long-term sustainability and security also with respect to the current geopolitical situation.”
Source: TASR
Compiled by Roman Cuprik from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
