In the context of Russia’s war with Ukraine, the Hungarian government decided to purchase around 700 million cubic meters of natural gas, in addition to the volumes stipulated in existing contracts. This was announced on Facebook on Saturday, August 13, by the Secretary of State of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tamas Menzer, specifying that “the acquisition of such a large volume is impossible without Russian sources”.

According to him, Gazprom started supplying additional volumes of gas to Hungary on the morning of 12 August. In the first phase, by the end of August, 2.6 million cubic meters of additional volume of blue fuel will be supplied daily through the Turkish Stream pipeline, negotiations are ongoing on the September schedule, Mentzer said.

He explained that the issue of additional Russian gas supplies to Hungary was agreed during the visit of Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó to Moscow in late July. Among other things, Szijjarto spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The purpose of the agreement on additional purchases is the Hungarian government’s desire to “guarantee the safe supply of natural gas to the country”, stems from the message of the Secretary of State of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for bilateral relations.