Robert Fico’s Russian gas fearmongering falls flat - Politico
That's according to Politico, Ukrinform reports.
Fico argued that the expiration of the agreement that allows Russia's Gazprom to export energy through Ukraine would "have drastic impacts on all of us in the European Union." The Slovak prime minister also threatened Kyiv with a halt to electricity exports in response to Ukraine’s refusal to review the gas transit agreement with Russia.
Despite this, Politico reports that within days of the gas supply being cut off, the shortage predictions have proven wrong and prices “have not skyrocketed.”
Statistics from Gas Infrastructure Europe show that Slovakia’s gas storage facilities are more than three-quarters full, which is above the seasonal average. In Hungary, the figure is around 68%. Other EU member states that previously relied on Russian pipeline gas, such as Austria and the Czech Republic, also have “healthy volumes in storage”.
“There is of course no crisis,” said Laurent Ruseckas, a leading gas markets expert and executive director at commodities intelligence giant S&P Global. He added that there is no supply problem for Slovakia or countries like Austria and Czechia. There is a “relatively high storage capacity compared to demand” so even if there were no alternative sources, there would be no supply problem, the expert said, adding that there are plenty of alternatives.
Meanwhile, Michal Kocůrek, an energy expert at Czech-based consultancy firm EGÚ, said the impact on the EU as a whole would be marginal.
“I would even dare to say that one risk — that the traders were constantly dealing with and that was being constantly manipulated and driving the price up — has finally disappeared. So soon it will become very apparent that Slovakia is well-supplied and no problems are occurring, and that the prices on the EU market are falling,” the expert said.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, on January 2, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said his country’s government would discuss measures in response to Ukraine’s actions after it stopped the transit of Russian gas through its territory to Slovakia.
