Hungary will continue negotiations with Russia on increasing natural gas imports, expecting to reach an agreement with Gazprom in the near future, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said on Monday, citing Reuters.
Last month, Szijjártó met in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to try to secure an additional 700 million cubic meters of natural gas imports from Russia on top of those already stipulated in the existing contract between the Hungarian government and Gazprom.
A Russian energy company began increasing natural gas supplies to Hungary earlier this month as Moscow either completely or sharply cut energy exports to other European countries.
“Like it or not, we will continue negotiations with the Russians to increase natural gas supplies to Hungary,” Szijjarto said at a meeting with business representatives on Monday.
“There is a proposal to increase gas supplies, we will clarify it with Gazprom in the coming days and sign an agreement under which we could receive additional supplies every day,” he added, this time without specifying the exact volumes.
As of the beginning of August, Hungary’s gas storage facilities were 51% full.
Hungary excludes new restrictions on the import of energy carriers from Russia
According to the contract signed last year, before the start of the “special military operation” on February 24, Hungary annually receives 3.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Gazprom through Bulgaria and Serbia, another billion through a transit gas pipeline through Austria.
The contract signed between Hungary and Gazprom is valid for 15 years.
Last week, Peter Szijjarto said that his government does not even want to discuss new energy sanctions against Russia.
“Now it is physically impossible to supply Hungary with oil and natural gas without Russian energy carriers, so we will not agree that the Hungarian people pay the price of war,” he said on Facebook.
Hungary was also exempted from the embargo on Russian oil adopted by the European Union at the beginning of June.
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Source: Hot News RU
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