BUDAPEST, March 30. /TASS/. The Hungarian authorities are not going to abandon the long-term contract with Gazprom, because it guarantees reliable gas supplies for years to come, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto said on Thursday. He was speaking at a press conference after a meeting of energy ministers of the countries of the Organization of Turkic States in Budapest.
As Szijjarto said, the diversification of sources and routes of energy supplies Hungary is striving for does not mean refusing to cooperate with reliable partners.
"We signed a long-term contract that provides for the supply of 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia over 15 years. We do not want to reduce it, because there are no reasons for this. Gazprom is an absolutely reliable partner, and the contract signed with the company provides Hungary with long-term gas," he said. Szijjarto’s speech was broadcast on his Facebook page (banned in Russia, owned by the Meta corporation, recognized as extremist in Russia).
Szijjarto also noted that Hungary receives gas from other sources. In particular, it counts on deliveries of fuel from Azerbaijan later this year. In general, gas consumption in the country is about 10 billion cubic meters per year.
When asked to comment about Russia's decision to add Hungary to the list of unfriendly states in connection with its support for EU sanctions, Szijjarto said that "there is nothing new in it." He recalled that "the Russian government published its list of unfriendly countries many months ago and it included all EU members. However, this does not hamper energy cooperation between Hungary and Russia, which "goes smoothly," the minister stressed. According to him, this was confirmed, in particular, by a telephone conversation on March 28 with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, during which they discussed a number of energy issues.
Hungary receives the main volume of gas through the TurkStream pipeline and its branches through Bulgaria and Serbia on the basis of a long-term contract with Gazprom. Last year, it received 4.8 billion cubic meters of Russian gas via this route. Hungary also uses the Adriatic gas pipeline from Croatian seaports with LNG terminals and purchases gas on the European market. Hungary also plans to start importing gas from Azerbaijan by the end of this year and subsequently receive 1-2 billion cubic meters of gas from that country annually.