Hungary to Get Russian Gas Largely Through Serbia

Hungary has reached an agreement with Russia on all the terms of a new long-term agreement on gas supply, which will come into effect on October 1, announced the minister of foreign affairs of Hungary, Peter Szijjarto, on his Facebook profile, pointing out that the majority of the quantities will be delivered through Serbia.

Szijjarto said the agreement with Gazprom is for 15 years, with an option to modify purchased quantities after 10 years, Reuters reports.

– We have also agreed on the price, which is much more favorable than that we paid under the deal that Hungary signed in 1995, which expires now – he said, without giving exact details.

He added the deal would be signed by the end of September and Gazprom would ship 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Hungary annually, via two routes – 3.5 billion cubic meters via Serbia and 1 billion cubic meters via Austria.

Szijjarto said most of the shipments under the new contract will arrive via a new interconnector at the country’s Serbian border that will be operational by October.

Gazprom said it had met the Hungarian foreign minister but did not give any details.

Hungary has relied on Russia for most of its natural gas imports delivered via a pipeline through Ukraine. However, in recent years it has diversified gas imports, opening cross-border interconnectors with most of its neighbors and securing supplies from Royal Dutch Shell, via a liquefied natural gas (LNG) port in Croatia.