Hungary does not plan to stop buying gas from Russia, foreign minister says

Hungary is satisfied with its cooperation with Russia on natural gas supplies and has no plans to stop buying gas from Moscow, despite the pressure being exerted on the country over the issue. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said this today at an economic forum in St Petersburg.

While western European countries are working to break away from Russian gas, Hungary receives 4.5 billion cubic metres of gas a year from Russia under a 15-year contract signed in 2021. Szijjártó added that Hungary’s priority is to secure the gas supplies it needs, regardless of political or ideological pressure.

Gas is now flowing into Hungary mainly through the TurkStream pipeline, which allows Moscow to bypass Ukraine when transporting Russian gas to southern Europe.

Hungary is the only member of the European Union whose leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has maintained friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Reuters reported.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said at the beginning of this year that the Czech Republic would soon completely end its dependence on energy commodities from Russia. In the case of gas supplies, he said, the process is almost complete. He also expects Russian oil supplies to be phased out after the TAL pipeline is expanded next year, as well as the gradual replacement of Russian nuclear fuel.

Czechia now has access to liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity in Eemshaven in the Netherlands, where it has around three billion cubic metres of gas a year until 2027. The Czech government is also interested in the LNG terminal under development on the German island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea, which offers infrastructure advantages. The region is connected to Saxony by the OPAL gas pipeline, and Czechia is linked to it by the Gazela pipeline. Russian gas previously accounted for almost 97 percent of supplies to Czechia.