Slovakia plans negotiations on gas supplies, Ukraine transit next week

(Reuters) - Slovakia will conduct a series of negotiations from next week to ensure Russian gas supplies after its current transit contract that involves Ukraine expires at the end of this year, government officials said on Friday.

Slovakia has a long-term contract with Russia's Gazprom and wanted to maintain Russian gas imports through Ukraine. But they will cease at the end of 2024 as Ukraine does not plan to renew the transit contract it has with Gazprom.

"You may witness in the nearest days, including during the Christmas holidays, extraordinarily intensive negotiations on various levels and in various countries that start already next week," Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico told a news conference broadcast on Facebook.

News website quoted Economy Minister Denisa Sakova as saying the talks would include the European Commission, Ukraine, and EU member states.

Fico said he aimed to secure the continuation of eastern supplies to avoid paying more in transit fees for gas from other directions.

"We do not see any reason to pay more for gas than is necessary for geopolitical reasons," Fico said.

"I believe that, even if there is a short-term outage of supplies from the east, we are sufficiently pre-stocked, that we will find a common solution for multiple countries of the European Union and we maintain transit of gas through Slovak territory and also the transit of gas through Ukrainian territory."

Slovak officials have sought alternative schemes for transit of gas through Ukraine which would not require direct agreement between Ukraine and Russia, but have not reached any deal.

(Reporting by Jan Lopatka in Prague; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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