Minister acknowledged that Hungary might face oil supply crisis

Csaba Lantos, Hungary’s minister responsible for energy affairs, talked about a possible supply crisis concerning oil at the summer university of Tusnádfürdő, Szeklerland, Transylvania, Central Romania.

Mr Lantos said Hungary’s electricity supply is secure due to the developments of the last 12-13 years, which is the time of the Orbán cabinet. He added that there are periods when solar panels can provide 100 percent of the supply in Hungary. Furthermore, there are hours when we are entirely carbon-free, mfor.hu wrote. Concerning gas supply, Hungary has bidirectional compressors and pipelines with all neighbouring countries but Austria. Moreover, consumption has fallen significantly since the pandemic, from 11.5 billion cubic metres to 9 billion.

The odd one out is oil. Hungary has only two incoming pipelines, and one of them comes from Ukraine. That operates despite the war, but the Russian-Ukrainian transit contract will expire next December, and nobody knows what the future holds in that respect.

He said they try to buy back Hungarian companies in the sector because that is the key to establishing energy security. Furthermore, concerning the Paks nuclear power plant extension project, he said they managed to modify the contract, and Brussels accepted that. Therefore, he hopes the building speed will accelerate.

We wrote HERE that crude oil was found on the outskirts of a Hungarian town near Budapest. In THIS article, you may read about the Hungarian government’s attitude towards Russian oil.