Slovakia is interested in concluding a long-term contract for natural gas supplies from Azerbaijan for a period of at least ten years, Slovakian Deputy Prime Minister and Environment Minister Tomas Taraba said.
"We are discussing the conclusion of a long-term contract with Azerbaijan, for a minimum of ten years. Slovakia wants to diversify its energy supplies, and Azerbaijan is a very reliable partner for us. The only question is how to deliver energy resources to Central Europe. So it's not about whether we want to receive your energy resources, but about how to deliver them to Central Europe," Taraba said in an interview with the Azerbaijani agency Report.
Currently, discussions are underway on "which pipelines can be used and in what amount," he said.
"We are also grateful to Azerbaijan for the fact that during a supply crisis, for example from Ukraine several months ago, your country was very active in ensuring supplies to Slovakia," Taraba said.
Martin Huska, the CEO of Slovakia's largest oil and gas company Slovensky plynarensky priemysel (SPP), previously said that Slovakia was holding negotiations with the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) on long-term gas supplies, but they are at an early stage.
In connection with the new legislation of the European Union and the adoption of the EU regulation on the phased termination of natural gas imports from Russia, SPP is searching for new suppliers "capable of delivering the required volumes of natural gas at reasonable prices," Huska said.
"We consider our pilot project of short-term natural gas supplies from SOCAR to Slovakia to have been successful. It confirmed for us that SOCAR is an important business partner that can play a significant role in supplies for SPP. We would therefore certainly like to build on our previous positive experience with our Azerbaijani partner," he said.
As reported, SOCAR launched natural gas supplies to Slovakia on December 1, 2024, based on a short-term pilot contract signed on November 12, 2024. The terms of the agreement, including supply levels and their cost, were not disclosed.
At the same time, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in December 2025 that the country was ready to continue supplies to Slovakia "at any necessary time."
Azerbaijan has contracts to supply gas to 16 countries, 13 of them in Europe, namely Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Germany, Ukraine and Austria.
The annual volume should gradually increase to 15 terawatt-hours (TWh), which is around 1.5 billion cubic meters, including long-term contracts with a fixed supply volume to Italy, Greece, and Bulgaria, and with Germany's Securing Energy for Europe GmbH (SEFE) for 10 years. Contracts without exact purchase volumes have been signed with the remaining countries.
Azerbaijan also exports gas to Turkey via the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), and to Georgia via the SCP and Hajigabul-Gazakh pipeline.
On August 2, 2025, Azerbaijan began exporting gas to Syria. At the initial stage, the supply volume is 3.4 million cubic meters per day with a subsequent increase to 6 mcm.
