Kremsky: Gas Reservers Won't Get Slovakia Through Winter

Bratislava, July 12 (TASR) – Slovakia doesn’t have enough gas reserves to last through the whole winter season, contrary to what Economy Minister Richard Sulik claims (SaS), House Committee for Economic Affairs chairman Peter Kremsky (OLaNO) declared on Tuesday.

The reserves have been growing, but it’s necessary to keep accumulating them because the gas might completely stop flowing from Russia to Europe in the autumn, a scenario for which Slovakia must be prepared.

“According to Richard Sulik, we have 49% of the annual gas consumption in our reservoirs, which will last us through the whole heating season or until the end of March 2023. That’s not true, however. We must stick to the facts,” claimed Kremsky, pointing to the data of the AGSI gas utility website.

It follows from the data that Slovakia consumes about 57 TWh annually, but has only about 23 TWh in its underground reservoirs at the moment.

Kremsky underlined that Slovakia needs at least 35 TWh to supply households, heating facilities and industry, and that it has been physically impossible for Slovakia to increase its gas reserves to such a volume as presented by Sulik.

Kremsky added that he appreciates how the SPP gas utility and the Economy Ministry is trying to secure a sufficient amount of gas and all the progress they have accomplished in this endeavour.

“I’m confident that if they continue doing this, they will manage to fill the reservoirs by the end of August with sufficient volume to get us through the entire winter. But it’s useless to mislead the people and calm them down prematurely with unsubstantiated claims,” he said.