Hungary, Russia hammer out details of long-term gas supply agreement

Hungary has worked out “all details” and “all issues” of a long-term gas delivery agreement with Russia that will replace one expiring this year, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a video message posted on Facebook on Monday.

“To ensure Hungary’s long-term stable, predictable energy supply, a decision has been taken to reach a new long-term gas supply agreement with Russia. Today, we have agreed on all details and all issues concerning that agreement. We shook hands on that,” Szijjártó said in Saint Petersburg.

Szijjártó said the text of the agreement will be finalised in September.

The agreement will be signed at the end of September and come into force from October 1, he added.

The agreement will be in force for 10+5 years, with an option to modify delivery volume after the tenth year, he said.

Under the agreement, Hungary will buy 4.5 billion cubic metres of gas a year from Gazprom, including 3.5 billion delivered from the south, through Hungary’s interconnector with Serbia, and 1 billion via the pipeline running from Austria.

Szijjártó said the price the sides agreed on is much better than the one in the delivery agreement expiring this year.

Hungary signed its last long-term agreement on gas deliveries from Russia in 1995.

As we wrote before, mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia is in Hungary’s interest, Szijjártó said after talks with Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, in Budapest on Tuesday, adding that “our friends and allies hold the same position but they will not speak about it so openly”. Details HERE.

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