Serbia has confirmed that it will be able to provide increased transit gas to Hungary if transit through Ukraine stops. This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations of Hungary, Peter Szijjarto, in a video message broadcast on social networks.
«Most of the gas supplies from Russia to Hungary arrive through Serbia, in recent days we have heard that Ukraine wants to terminate the transit agreement with Russia previously concluded with Russia. Today, the President of Serbia confirmed that if Hungary wants to increase the amount of gas arriving to Hungary through Serbia, then Serbia can provide the necessary supply capacities for this,» he said.
This week, Szijjártó has already raised the issue of Russian gas supplies to Hungary. According to him, if the Ukrainian route is closed, the entire volume due to Hungary can be sent through the Turkish Stream.
In September 2021, Hungary and Gazprom signed a 15-year gas supply contract. It was about 4.5 billion cubic meters per year, of which 3.5 billion fall on the Turkish Stream route through Serbia, another billion go through Austria. A year later, Moscow and Budapest agreed on additional supplies of 5.8 million cubic meters of gas per year through the Turkish Stream and Serbia.
The current contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz expires at the end of 2024. Now pumping is carried out through the only GIS «Sudzha», and the volume is 40-42 million cubic meters per day. This week, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko said that Kyiv is not going to renew the agreement.