SaS Warns of Insufficient Gas Storage, MH Claims Slovakia Prepared for Winter

Bratislava, 22 September (TASR) - Opposition party SaS on Monday (21 September) again raised concerns over what it described as low levels of gas stored in Slovakia ahead of the winter season, with the Economy Ministry (MH) calling the claims that Slovakia is unprepared for winter misleading. The party plans to raise the issue at the next meeting of the House Economic Affairs Committee. The ministry insists that the country is prepared, partly because the ministry set the gas utility SPP targets for securing gas supplies in good time, which the company is meeting ahead of schedule. "Before winter, our storage facilities are about half full. This is a situation the economy minister cannot simply ignore. We want to know why we have ended up in this position, who is responsible and what the government will do if a cold winter arrives," MP Karol Galek (SaS) declared. The ministry responded that the percentage of storage capacity filled does not in itself indicate a country's preparedness for winter. "What matters is storage capacity relative to the country's consumption and the amount of gas actually secured for customers. Slovakia is among the EU countries with the largest storage capacity relative to its consumption and is currently the EU's fifth-best prepared country when comparing the amount of gas in storage with annual consumption," it said. SPP added on Tuesday that it has 16.8 terawatt hours (TWh) of gas in storage. It will reach its target of 17.5 TWh in the first half of October, meaning it will have a record volume of natural gas secured for the winter season. "For comparison, in 2022, when Karol Galek also served at the Economy Ministry, SPP had 14.3 TWh secured for the winter season," the ministry pointed out. Slovak gas storage facilities are currently 53.73 percent full, containing the equivalent of 19.79 TWh of gas. In the past, a large share of the storage capacity was used by foreign traders to store cheaper natural gas during the summer. This year, however, the difference between summer and winter prices has disappeared due to the conflict between the United States and Iran. mf