Bratislavacelebrates the 50th anniversary of the Druzhba oil pipeline commissioning, the 45th anniversary of the first export supplies of blue fuel from the former USSR to the then Czechoslovakia and the 40th anniversary of the Eustream transit gas pipeline system.

The meeting dedicated to these anniversaries was attended by Alexander Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Director General of Gazprom Export, Tomas Malatinsky, Slovak Minister of Economy, Jan Klepac, Executive Director of the Slovak Gas and Oil Association, the executives of Slovak companies, members of Parliament, Pavel Kuznetsov, Russian Ambassador to Slovakia and Maros Sefcovic, European Commission Vice-President.

The participants of the meeting highlighted that the mutually beneficial cooperation of Gazprom and Slovakia was important for strengthening the security of gas supply to European consumers and for developing to a great extent the mutually beneficial Russian-European economic relations in general.

“We see the intrinsic changes in the European market and we are ready to work with them. At the same time, we are sure there are things and principles that have to remain unchanged regardless of price behavior or emergence of new gas sources. They are the principles of free competition, non-discriminatory access, compliance with legislative regulations,” Alexander Medvedev stated.

Background

Slovakiais the largest Russian gas transiting country after Ukraine. In 2008 Gazprom and its Slovak partners signed new 20-year supply and transit agreements.

Slovakiahas a long history of partnership with Russia and is a reliable partner in the sphere of gas supply. Gazprom Group's partners are SPP, dealing with gas purchase, sale and distribution, and Eustream a.s., Slovak gas transmission system (GTS) operator. Russian natural gas transited via the Uzhgorod route crosses the Slovak Republic. In Western Slovakia the gas flow is split in two parts: one is transited across the Czech Republic to Germany and the other is supplied to Austria, France and Italy.

According the 2011 results 5.89 billion cubic meters of natural gas was supplied to Slovakia and 47.38 billion cubic meters of natural gas was conveyed through the county, including 0.83 billion cubic meters for the compressor stations.