Slovak gas distributor Slovensky plynarensky priemysel (SPP) has signed a gas-supply contract with E.ON Ruhrgas, said SPP chairman Bernd Wagner at a press conference in Bratislava on June 29, the TASR newswire reported.
Wagner told TASR that the company has secured diversified gas supplies for Slovakia not only for crisis periods but also for the standard regime. The contract covers a period of ten years with E.ON due to supply 500 million cubic metres of gas to Slovakia each year as of July 1, 2009, said Wagner, adding that a similar contract should be signed with Gfd Suez soon as well.
Slovakia is to receive gas from Western sources for the first time, but Russia's Gazprom will remain the main supplier of gas to the country. Wagner also said that SPP is ready for possible further crises, that supplies have been diversified and that reverse flows can be technically introduced immediately. He said that the company has enough reserves and that its clients won't suffer from any lack of gas even in the case of a possible prolonged disruption of supplies from Russia.
The gas price is equal to that charged by Gazprom but transmission charges in Germany and the Czech Republic must also be taken into account. Slovakia was left without gas supplies for two weeks at the beginning of January due to a conflict between Gazprom and Ukrainian gas-transporter Naftogaz which transports Russian gas through Ukraine. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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