Hungarian gas reserves will receive an additional 2 billion cubic meters from Russia this year with another 2 bcm of Russian gas coming via Austria next year, the country’s foreign minister Peter Szijjarto has said, according to the Oil & Gas Journal.
Szijjarto gave the statement after signing agreements at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) last Thursday.
Natural gas supplies from Gazprom to Hungary from Jan. 1 through June 5 totaled 4.3 billion cu m, a 57.5% increase vs. the same period last year, the minister said after a meeting with the Russian gas giant’s CEO Alexey Miller.
Development of the Hungarian gas transmission system also was discussed. The Hungarian party expressed its intention to make sure that the gas that is planned to be supplied to Europe via the transit string of the TurkStream gas pipeline can be received by Hungary in the shortest possible time.
In 2018, Gazprom supplied to Hungary 7.6 bcm of gas, an increase of 9.3% from 2017, when Miller and Szijjarto signed a roadmap to implement a number of measures aimed at developing Hungary’s gas transmission system.
Hungary gets most of its gas from Russia via a pipeline that passes through Ukraine. The current agreement between Russia and Ukraine on the transit of gas bound for Europe expires on December 31, 2019, and the sides have still not signed another to replace it. Tensions between Moscow and Kiev in the past have resulted in interruptions of gas deliveries to Europe.
Szijjarto said he had met with his Russian peer Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov, and Minister of Energy Alexander Novak in St. Petersburg.
