The Slovak Gas Industry called a state of emergency, leaving the possibility open for restricting supply to certain customers, in particular for industry.
“After the shortage of deliveries from Russia, Slovakia does not have enough natural gas,” said Minister for the Economy Lubomir Jahnatek at a special press conference. According his assessment, in the current weather conditions Slovakia consumes about 30 million cubic meters of natural gas per day. From storage 22 million cubic meters are available, but that will only last 10 days, he said.
“The biggest priority for now is to secure deliveries for household customers,” said Bernd Wagner, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Slovak Gas Industry. The gas shortage should not affect households, hospitals and schools, but certain industries may have their gas restricted if conditions don’t change.
Other European countries such as the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Italy and Hungary have been left without Russian gas as well. Bulgaria is perhaps in the worst predicament, with extremely low temperatures and total reliance on natural gas from Russia.
