Gazprom will deliver additional gas to Hungary next winter and will offer China another 600 million cubic meters this year in addition to contractual obligations, the head of the group, Alexei Miller, said, citing Russian news agency TASS Reuters reports.

Oil and natural gas production vesselPhoto: Jakovos Hatzistavrou / AFP / Profimedia Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the leaders of both countries during a trip to China last week, and Miller was among the business leaders who accompanied him on the trip.

Gazprom is trying to make up for the loss of most of its European markets since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, largely due to explosions that severely damaged its Nord Stream pipeline through the Baltic Sea last year.

The investigation has not yet established who is guilty.

Hungary is the only member of the European Union whose leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has maintained friendly relations with Putin since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It is also a member of NATO.

Orbán told Putin during their meeting in Beijing on Tuesday that Hungary never wanted to confront Russia and tried to maintain bilateral contacts.

The US ambassador to Hungary said that Orbán’s decision to go to the meeting was “alarming”.

Estonia’s prime minister said the images of them shaking hands were “very, very unpleasant”.

Hungary is considered a key potential opponent of the December decision to open negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU, which will require the unanimous support of the bloc’s 27 members.

The EU as a whole has sharply reduced its dependence on Russian energy resources in response to the war in Ukraine, but TASS quotes Miller as saying in a TV interview that additional gas supplies to Hungary this year amounted to 1.3 billion cubic meters.

“And we have an agreement that next winter we will provide additional volumes on a permanent basis,” he said.

Miller showed that daily demand from China also exceeded contractual levels.

“We regularly supply additional volumes to the Chinese market. And we have been doing it for several years. This year, I think, (additional volume) will be 600 million cubic meters of gas,” he said.