Russia, Hungary Near New Gas Deal
Hungary has agreed to take 4.2bn m3 of gas from Russia's Gazprom in the year starting October 2020, its foreign minister Peter Szijjarto told Hungarian state media on June 23. Earlier, Budapest also said earlier it would take 2bn m3 of gas from Gazprom for storage, and shipments are already underway.
Budapest is also preparing to negotiate a new flexible long-term gas supply contract with Gazprom. Szijjarto was in Moscow for talks with Russian energy minister Alexander Novak.
"Our goal is to reach three, five-year agreements, which can be terminated at the end of every fifth year," he told state agency MTI. "This ensures our long-term supply and also our ability to renegotiate the agreement or quit if in the meantime better options arise or the international energy market changes."
Hungary will be able to receive up to 6bn m3/yr of Russian gas from the TurkStream pipeline starting in October 2021, Szijjarto said.
Russian supplies to Hungary totalled 10.5bn m3 in the whole of last year, up from 7.4bn m3 in 2018, and reached 1.24bn m3 in the first quarter of this year.
