Russia, Hungary Hold Talks, Sign 'Deal'
Russia and Hungary say they have reached a new agreement on Russian gas supplies to Hungary in 2020 but neither provided details. Indeed the meeting of the two political allies seemed to yield little new.
Neither government and neither Gazprom nor Hungary’s main energy utility/importer MVM gave details about the new gas supply agreement. However the Kremlin said the current gas deal would end in 2019, while visiting Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban also told a press conference September 18: “We have reached an agreement on gas supplies for 2020”.
In July 2017 both countries had signed a roadmap designed to upgrade Hungary's gas transmission system in readiness for a possible connection to Gazprom’s TurkStream pipeline. But this week's meetings seem not to have finalised such an investment. Instead Orban told the press briefing with Russian president Vladimir Putin that it was "no secret" that Hungary wants an onshore extension of TurkStream to Hungary, adding: “That would open excellent opportunities for Hungary. I asked President [Putin] to seriously consider this possibility.”
Putin said: "I do not rule out that after the Turkish Stream is built, one of the land branches of this gas main could pass through Hungary."
A political ally of Putin, Orban last week clashed with the European Parliament over his authoritarian rule and has been warned that the flow of EU subsidies to Hungary may be reduced. His visit to Moscow was headlined by Russian broadcaster RT this week as 'a middle finger' to the EU, but may have been hastily arranged, with little new to sign.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller met Hungary’s trade minister Peter Szijjarto the previous day (September 17). The Russian state-run company said their meeting “considered the prospects of storing the Russian gas in underground gas storage facilities in Hungary in the future.”
Gazprom said it supplied 5.4bn m3 gas to Hungary between January 1 and September 15 2018, up 8.6% year on year. In full year 2017, it supplied 7 bn m3, 21.9% more than in 2016.
Gazprom owns no storage in Hungary but supplied 60% of the country's gas. The Russian gas giant though co-owns eight gas storage facilities in five European countries (Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Serbia and Czech Republic) and in 2017 its own storage capacities in Europe totaled 5bn m3, with deliverability of 83mn m3/d.