A major gas storage milestone last year was especially the company’s entry into Germany’s market through the acquisition of three underground storage facilities in Bavaria. NAFTA also continued exploration in Ukraine, where it has been active since 2016.
An noteworthy development in natural gas storage the previous year was filling the underground storage facilities to 100% of their capacity during the summer. This was due to customer concerns related to Russia and Ukraine not extending the contract between them at the end of 2019, which led to storing additional gas. It also confirmed the strategic role these storage facilities play in ensuring a smooth supply, while enabling NAFTA to develop new natural gas trading products.
“In the past year, we continued to pursue a strategy of growth in key fields and effectively using our many years of know-how in both local and international markets, while successfully establishing ourselves in Germany and utilizing our extensive experience in Ukraine,” was how NAFTA General Director Ing. Martin Bartošovič evaluated 2019, expressing his confidence that the company’s many years of experience, highly-qualified team of experts and sophisticated, cutting-edge technology would position it as the European leader in underground gas storage and hydrocarbon exploration and production.
NAFTA’s experts have been intensively seeking out attractive foreign projects and working with others to apply the know-how gained from a long tradition in the sector. With the successful acquisition of three Bavarian underground gas storage facilities - Inzenham-West, Wolfersberg and Breitbrunn/Eggstät, NAFTA has flourished in entering Germany’s natural gas market. The company is integrating deeper and exchanging its experience in order to create an even more effective and reliable operation. This strategic investment provides NAFTA with extensive opportunities to utilize its innovative engineering and business know-how to provide storage services in the dynamically changing natural gas market.
In exploration and production of hydrocarbons, NAFTA continued with its successful international cooperation in projects both local and international projects. The Trnava region has reliably produced hydrocarbons for several decades and now the Trakovice 13 exploration well has been drilled. Simultaneously, NAFTA has also been able to obtain new exploration areas in eastern Slovakia and inside the Vienna Basin. Exploration also continued in Ukraine, where it has been active since 2016. Together with Cub Energy Inc., NAFTA drilled its first exploration well in the Uzhhorod License. By the end of 2019, the company had also acquired the Vatazhkivska License, another opportunity to explore and produce hydrocarbons in eastern Ukraine.
NAFTA continued in 2019 its long-term effort to seek public support for innovative energy storage and energy consumption optimization projects. Underground gas storage facilities are creating great potential for the energy storage from renewable resources, which has had a positive impact on the entire energy market. NAFTA’ is striving to use all its opportunities to develop our its competence even in innovative storage of renewables and is now active in several innovative projects and partnerships.