Hungary: Europe should increase gas supplies rather than reduce consumption

Europe should focus on expanding gas supplies rather than reducing consumption, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said today. Expanding available gas sources is now the only solution to the current situation in the European energy market, which is killing Europe’s competitiveness, he added, according to the MTI news agency.

Szijjártó spoke at a conference in Budapest focused on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and acknowledged that LNG could play a role in diversifying Hungary’s energy supply. He added, however, that the relevant infrastructure needs to be expanded, which he said would require funding from the European Union.

The minister also said that Hungary had reached a political agreement to receive 100 million cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan this year. He said the agreement envisages increasing deliveries to two billion cubic meters a year once a long-term contract is signed.

Szijjártó also warned that, according to experts, next winter in Europe could be “much more difficult” than the current one, partly because of the lack of Russian gas supplies and higher global demand for gas as a result of the recovery of China’s economy.