Hungary started to replace Russian gas and could go even further

Despite the Hungarian government’s stance on the importance of Russian raw materials, Hungary started to diversify its supply of natural gas. If Hungary wants to, it could be completely independent of Russian gas.

The Hungarian government campaigned tirelessly in the EU to get exemptions from the EU’s sanctions against Russia. It continues to do so with nuclear energy, but as G7 points out, the Hungarian economy started to use less and less Russian gas in 2022.

As the analysis of G7 argues, the diversification of gas supplies has been a desired goal for many years. Despite that, there has been little real progress in this area in recent years, either in Hungary or at the EU level.

Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 71 percent of natural gas coming to Hungary came through Ukraine from Russia. This could form a basis for the Hungarian government’s narrative that Russian gas is irreplaceable.

However, this situation already started to change in the autumn of 2021. That was when a new long-term agreement with Russia came into force, in which the Hungarian side agreed to buy from Gazprom via Serbia instead of Ukraine. As G7 argues, this was more significant for the Ukrainians, who were thus deprived of the transit fee for the gas.

The Serbian route did not fully replace the Ukrainian, but it gave a kickstart for the diversification that became a must after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Previously, in case of disruption, Hungary supplied its needs from Slovak and Austrian pipelines, also partly with Russian gas.