Hungarian Foreign Minister considers supplying the country without gas from Russia impossible

BELGRADE, Sep 3 – PRIME. The lack of stable gas supplies from Russia will not allow meeting Hungary’s needs for blue fuel, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó.

“We are not buying gas from Russia because we want to send some signal of political support, we are buying it because that is the reality of the region. As long as you can’t transport gas in a backpack or by train, you have to use the pipeline. If you look at the infrastructure and geography our region, you can’t exclude Russia If you don’t look at Russian sources, you won’t be able to meet your needs It’s about math and physics, not ideology, if you need 8.5 billion cubic meters of imported gas per year, like us, you physically you cannot provide them without Russian gas,” the Hungarian minister told the Tanyug news agency.

According to him, the capacities of all possible alternative gas sources cannot provide Hungary with the necessary 8.5 billion cubic meters.

“And then what will we tell our people? That we have decided not to buy gas in Russia, so there will be no heating in 50, 30, 20 or some percent of the houses in Hungary? Or we will say that we are very sorry, but we will not buy gas in Russia, therefore, several tens of thousands of people will lose their jobs due to the collapse of industry. Is this a legitimate expectation from Hungary and the Hungarian government? Szijjarto pointed out.

Hungary and Gazprom in September 2021 signed contracts for the supply of 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year over the next 15 years, of which 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year falls on the route through Serbia (from the Turkish Stream) and 1 billion through Austria. The first volumes of gas through the Balkan Stream gas pipeline, which receives gas from the Turkish Stream, went to Hungary through Serbia on October 1.

The contract volume corresponds to approximately 12.3 million cubic meters of gas per day.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary is in Belgrade on a working visit to the summit of the cross-border economic initiative Open Balkan.

On August 31, Szijjarto announced that an agreement had been signed with Gazprom, according to which, from September 1, an additional 5.8 million cubic meters of gas would be supplied to the country daily through the Turkish Stream and Serbia.