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(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Slovakia that Russia’s Gazprom would find alternative ways to deliver contracted gas to Slovakia after the end of transit through Ukraine, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Friday.
Fico met Putin in Moscow on Dec. 22 to discuss gas and the war in Ukraine after Ukraine decided not to allow Russian gas flows through Ukraine from Jan. 1.
Fico has threatened to take retaliatory measures against Kyiv as Slovakia wanted to continue receiving Russian gas through Ukraine to keep costs down and keep earning transit country revenue from onward gas shipments to Europe.
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“I spoke to Putin about a contract between us and Gazprom, which says that they have to somehow deliver the gas to us,” Fico told a parliamentary committee.
“We are able to push something through the southern flow (route through Turkey), but so far we have storage, Slovak consumption is secured.”
Fico said Putin guaranteed that Russia would meets its obligations, although capacity in the TurkStream pipeline and connecting route taking Russian gas through Turkey to Europe was limited.
“President Putin guaranteed that they will honour their commitments,” Fico said.
Part could be delivered through western Europe, Fico said, referring to Slovakia’s pipeline connections to gas networks of central and west European neighbours.
Fico has argued Europe suffered multi-billion euro losses from a rise in gas prices caused by the absence of around 13.5 billion cubic metres of gas that flowed through Ukraine last year, including around 3 bcm for Slovak consumption.
Fico said an agreement had been close to continue shipments through Ukraine with Russian gas changing ownership before entering Ukraine under an agreement involving Azerbaijan or the Slovak gas importer SPP, but Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected extending any gas flows through Ukraine at the EU’s December summit.
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka in Prague;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)