News

From 1st July 2009 the post of Chairman of the Board of eustream, a.s. (Eustream) will be filled by Mr. Andreas Rau. There will also be a change in the Supervisory Board, where Mr. Georg Friedrich Rosenstock will replace Mr. Louis de Fouchécour in the post of Vice-chairman. These changes are being made based on the agreement to rotate the posts of Chairman of the Board and Vice-chairman of the Supervisory Board between the French and German members.

The past one-year of active work of the current Chairman of the Board of Eustream, Mr. Antoine Jourdain, was rich in events and also unexpected incidents in the history of the gas industry.

In October 2008 Eustream signed a Memorandum of Understanding with transmission system operators from South-east Europe with the aim of strengthening coordination and the transparency of processes in the establishment of future network connections, harmonising technical standards and so also increasing the safety and security of gas supplies to Europe.

A key event of the past year was the conclusion of a long-term gas transmission contract with Russian natural gas supplier Gazprom export in December 2008. “The new agreement on transmission for more than 1 trillion cubic meters of natural gas over the next twenty years represented a huge success for our company, especially during the current financial crisis,” summarised the current Chairman of the Board, Antoine Jourdain, who will continue to act as a regular member of the Board of Directors.

The beginning of 2009 was characterised by the gas crisis. For the first time in the 40-year history of gas transmission through our territory, gas supplies to Slovakia were completely shut off. The needs of Slovak customers were secured by Eustream in so-called reverse flow mode, i.e. in the direction from west to east, for the first time in the history of the transmission system in Slovakia.

“Eustream will continue to go in the direction of increasing the security of supplies for Slovakia. This will be achieved by investing in cross-border transmission capacities. This year we will mostly analyze the possibilities of applying reverse flow and the establishment of new connections with the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary. These projects are of great importance in an international context as they were officially included in the Economy Recovery Plan elaborated by the European Union,” said the newly appointed Chairman of the Board, Andreas Rau, summarising key company objectives.

From 1st July 2009 personnel changes will take place also in Eustream´s Supervisory Board. Louis de Fouchécour, member and also Vice-chairman, is reaching the end of his term of office and will be replaced by the new Eustream Supervisory Board member, Georg Friedrich Rosenstock.

Eustream, in the same way as its sole shareholder – SPP, applies the principle of regular rotation of posts in top Eustream company bodies. Personnel changes were approved at the Annual General Meeting of Eustream, which was held on 29th April 2009 at the company’s registered head office.

Bratislava, 25 June 2009 – The largest carrier of Russian natural gas in the EU, Eustream, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Hungarian gas transmission company FGSZ Zrt. last week. The main goal of the co-operation is to analyze possibilities of connecting the Slovak and Hungarian gas transmission systems. According to Eustream’s expectations, the project could be implemented within a period of three years.

The planned 100 km long pipeline would connect Veľký Krtíš on the Slovak side with Vecses in Hungary. The project of interconnecting Slovakia with adjacent network operators has been officially implemented into the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) prepared by the European Council in December 2008. Increasing demand for securing reliable gas supplies is one of the reasons for establishing a program to aid economic recovery by granting financial assistance to projects in the field of energy. “By creating a new interconnection of the existing pipeline systems in our region, we would like to help increase the security of gas supplies for Slovakia and the liquidity of the market in Central Europe” commented Antoine Jourdain, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eustream.

“The total investment needs are substantially above EUR 100 million, and financial support envisaged under the EERP is EUR 30 million,” added Andreas Rau, member of the Board of Directors of Eustream. The project costs as well as the transmitted gas volumes will depend on real market demand.

Through the European Economic Recovery Plan, the European Council plans to allocate financial assistance worth approx. EUR 2.4 billion for gas and electricity infrastructure projects in the period 2009-2010. The supported projects should contribute to the security and diversification of sources of energy, routes and supplies, as well as to the integration of the internal energy market, with particular regard to cross-border areas.