Slovakia has started receiving Russian gas via the TurkStream pipeline, averting the country's energy crisis after Ukraine stopped gas transit through its territory, RT reported.
In a video posted on Facebook on February 10, Prime Minister Fico said, "Russian gas is now starting its journey to Slovakia via TurkStream." He also acknowledged the joint efforts of Russia and Türkiye. "We should recognize their role in this," the Slovak Prime Minister said.
Last week, Slovakia's state gas supplier SPP announced it would start importing Russian gas via the TurkStream pipeline from February 1 and plans to double gas deliveries in April.
Slovakia needs between 4 and 5 billion cubic metres of gas a year to meet its energy needs. Slovakia used to receive about 3 billion cubic metres of gas from Russia via Ukraine until the transit was stopped earlier this year.
Ukraine has not renewed its five-year gas transit agreement with Gazprom when it expires at the end of 2024. This will cut off Russian gas flows to Hungary, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Italy and Moldova, which have already seen a significant drop in Russian gas imports due to sanctions and the Nord Stream sabotage in 2022.
According to Prime Minister Fico, although the TurkStream pipeline helps Slovakia meet its immediate energy needs, Bratislava continues to explore alternative sources of supply to strengthen its long-term energy security.
The TurkStream pipeline consists of two branches, one serving Türkiye’s domestic needs and the other supplying gas to Europe. Last month, Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out a drone attack on a compressor station in Russia’s Krasnodar region that supplies gas to TurkStream. Turkey later confirmed the attack but assured that the flow of gas through TurkStream was not affected.
Also related to the TurkStream pipeline, according to TASS calculations on February 12 based on data from the European Network of Gas Transmission System Operators (ENTSOG), Russian gas supplies to Europe via this gas pipeline set a new record last week.
From February 3 to 9, more than 390 million cubic meters of gas were pumped through the Strandzha-2 compressor station on the Türkiye-Bulgaria border (onshore section of Turkstream).
This is an absolute record for weekly deliveries since the pipeline began operations in January 2020. The previous record for gas deliveries via the TurkStream pipeline was 376 million cubic meters in the week from January 13 to 19.
Also last week, the record for daily gas supply via TurkStream was broken again, reaching 56.7 million cubic meters on February 10.
Previously, gas transported via the TurkStream pipeline to Europe reached a record 1.56 billion cubic meters per month in January 2025. In 2024, the volume of gas transported via this pipeline increased by 23% to 16.7 billion cubic meters. Of this, a record 7.6 billion cubic meters were sent to Hungary.
