Slovakia Starts Importing Natural Gas from Azerbaijan
The agreement on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine is expiring. Kiev says agreement with Gazprom “will not be extended”
On Sunday, December 1, Azerbaijan’s state oil company Sokar started gas supplies to Slovakia on a pilot basis. The gas is supplied through cooperation with SPP, Slovakia’s main state-owned energy supplier. For now, it’s a short-term pilot contract, while both companies are looking to develop a long-term energy partnership. Sokar continues to diversify export destinations: along with Turkey, Georgia, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Northern Macedonia, Slovakia became the twelfth country to receive Azeri gas.
After Ukraine announced that its gas transit agreement with Russia, which expires at the end of December 2024, “will not be extended,” many Eastern European countries intensified their search for new suppliers, focusing primarily on Turkey, which re-exports gas coming from Russia for the Turkish Stream pipeline.
The population of European countries fears a new surge in energy prices after Kiev “shuts off the tap.” The price of gas has long been an important factor in political struggles between parties and movements. To reassure the population, Serbian Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic (pictured) officially announced that in the Balkan country, “there will be no changes in electricity and gas prices until the revision of the first unit of HPP Bajina Basta is completed and the second unit is overhauled in 2025.” “The goal,” the minister emphasized, “is for electricity and gas prices to remain unchanged until the end of the heating season.”
Meanwhile, Russia is increasing the production capacity of its liquefaction plants and shifting exports to Southeast Asian countries. Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries to Asia via the Arctic Sea Route totaled 2.4 million tons in 2024, surpassing the 2.27 million tons of LNG delivered in 2023. The last deliveries this year ended on November 19. Overall, Russian hydrocarbon exports, which include crude oil from northern oil sites along the Northern Sea Route in addition to LNG, increased by 14.5% in 2024, mainly due to oil exports to China.
Overall, in the first 10 months of the year (according to the latest data), Russian LNG exports amounted to 27.4 million tons, up 5% from the same period last year. However, Europe, which turns its nose up but consumes 53% of Russia’s total exports, remains the main destination for Russian LNG exports.
