BUDAPEST, January 16. /TASS/. The Hungarian company MVM has started commercial negotiations with its partners from Turkey to expand gas supplies by means of Azerbaijani gas, as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) delivered to Turkish seaports, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto announced on Monday.

He was speaking at a press conference after a meeting in Budapest with the Minister of Industry and Technology of Turkey, Mustafa Varank. They held a meeting of the bilateral commission on economic cooperation.

Reaffirming the intention of the Hungarian government to seek diversification of energy sources, Szijjarto noted that "the most realistic options for this are Azerbaijani gas and LNG coming to Turkish ports."

The minister specified that MVM and its Turkish partners have started commercial negotiations "on the volume and timing of deliveries to the Hungarian market." He also stressed that the expansion of Azerbaijani gas supplies to Europe will require large investments in pipeline infrastructure and Hungary counts on financial assistance from the European Union in the implementation of such projects.

Now, according to Szijjarto, the only reliable source of gas for Hungary is the TurkStream pipeline, which runs east-west at 100% of its capacity. Through its branch through Bulgaria and Romania, the country received 4.8 billion cubic meters of Russian gas last year, which provided about half of its needs, the Foreign Minister said.

As for the supply of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, they began at the very end of 2020 through the Trans-Adriatic pipeline, which is an integral part of the Southern Gas Corridor. Deliveries are designed to last for 25 years, and their volume should be more than 10 billion cubic meters. Of this amount, 8 billion cubic meters are Italy’s share while Greece and Bulgaria receive 1 billion each. In accordance with the agreement between Azerbaijan and the European Union, gas supplies to Europe in the next five years will increase to 20 billion cubic meters per year.

The Southern Gas Corridor, which stretches for 3,500 km from Baku to southern Italy through Georgia, Turkey, Greece and Albania, is an integrated pipeline system. Its capacity is 16 billion cubic meters per year. Its main source of raw materials is the Shah Deniz field with reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic meters.