Ukraine protests Hungary’s Gazprom deal

Hungary has signed a long-term agreement with Russia’s Gazprom, which will supply 4.5 billion cubic meters (BCM) of natural gas over a 15-year period at a significant discount from what the country has been paying – a situation which has created tensions between Hungary and Ukraine, whose gas pipeline infrastructure will be circumnavigated by the new deal to deliver Russian gas.

In fact, Hungary will receive 3.5 BCM of gas from an interconnector it shares with neighboring Serbia, while the remainder will come from a western direction, from Austria. For Ukraine, Hungary agreeing to such gas deliveries means Kyiv will lose significant transit fees from less Russia-sourced gas flowing through pipeline infrastructure passing through Ukraine. The Ukrainian foreign ministry says that through the new agreement with Gazprom, Budapest has violated a basic treaty with Kiev that the two signed in 1991.

Answering the dismay expressed by Kyiv, Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs and trade, Péter Szijjártó, said, “Hungary sees energy supply as a matter of national security, sovereignty as well as an economic issue rather than a political issue,” offering that it helped Hungary maintain low utility prices. He added that Hungary would also lose out on transit fees through the change of Russia-sourced natural gas supplies to countries in the region.

Source: Hungary Today