Russia-Ukraine Dispute No Threat to Gas Supply in Slovenia

Ljubljana, 03 January

Natural gas imports, which dropped by a third on Monday due to a dispute between Russia and Ukraine, were fully restored by Tuesday, the Slovenian gas company Geoplin said.

"Gas from Russia is coming in again according to contract and further complications are not expected at this point," Geoplin CEO Janez Mozina said. During Monday's disturbance in supply, Geoplin resorted to gas from the storehouses in Austria and Croatia, which it uses to balance annual gas supplies.
According to Mozina, the biggest users of natural gas in Slovenia are chemical, paper, iron and pharmaceutical industry as well as local distribution companies.
Slovenia uses 1.1 billion cubic metres of gas annually, he added, with some 55% or 650 million cubic metres imported from Russia through Ukraine, Slovakia and Austria.
Slovenia imports a further 40% of gas from Italy and 5% from Austria, so it is not dependent on a sole gas supplier and so the danger of disturbances in gas supply is not great.
The company said that if a short-term drop in gas supply does not exceed 30% of the usual levels and if winter temperatures are favourable, gas deliveries should not be affected.
Monday's gas supply disturbances in Europe came as a result of a Russian-Ukrainian dispute over natural gas prices. The dispute prompted the Russian state-run gas company Gazprom to stop delivering natural gas to Ukraine.
If the dispute continues, Slovenia would only be able to help in solving it within the EU's directive on the reliability of natural gas supply, according to the Slovenian Economics Ministry.
Under the directive, which will soon be transposed into Slovenian legislation, a coordination group for gas would be set up if gas imports from third countries to the EU drop by more than 20%.
As Slovenia is one of a few European countries without its own gas storage facility, a state-owned power producer is considering an underground gas storehouse at the location of a coal mine which is currently in the process of closure.
According to the manager of Termoelektrarna Brestanica, the planned facility would help cushion further gas supply disturbances.
Bogdan Barbic said that the EUR 30m investment would be financed from EU funds and by the state-owned power giant Holding Slovenske elektrarne (HSE). HSE's long-term strategy includes an increase in natural gas operations.

Russia-Ukraine Dispute No Threat to Gas Supply in Slovenia

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