The filling of the gas reservoirs is ongoing, the country's gas supply is guaranteed, as it has been until now, the State Secretary responsible for the development of bilateral relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced on the current channel M1.
Tamás Menczer said that the capacity of the reservoirs is 44-45 percent, compared to the country's annual consumption, which exceeds 26 percent.
The European occupancy average is below 15 percent, so "we are a significant step ahead," he added. The cabinet tasked Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Affairs, with arranging for the procurement of 700 million cubic meters of gas in addition to existing contracts. The minister is constantly doing this work, this amount could still be stored in the reservoirs, said Tamás Menczer. He emphasized: the saturation of the gas reservoirs will be adequate for the autumn and winter months.
In Europe, the main question now is not how much gas costs, but whether there is enough and whether everyone gets it.
"We have enough energy carriers, gas is constantly arriving, and we are also working to preserve the country's energy security," said the state secretary.
Regarding the shutdown of the North Stream-1 gas pipeline, Tamás Menczer noted that the situation is serious, as Russia had already limited the capacity to 40 percent even before the start of maintenance work on the pipeline and the suspension of delivery. The works on the pipeline will officially last until July 21, but at the moment no one knows whether the gas delivery will actually start after the deadline, and if so, in what quantity, said the state secretary. If not, it creates an "exciting situation", especially in Germany, he added.
Russian gas comes to Hungary from two directions: 3.5 billion cubic meters comes via the southern gas corridor – via Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia – while another one billion cubic meters comes from Austria, he said. According to Tamás Menczer, negotiations are now underway to divert the entire Russian gas volume to the southern gas corridor.
He emphasized that 40-50 percent of European gas consumption comes from Russian sources, so this cannot be replaced overnight.
Indeed, war is the cause of all problems, but the situation is only made worse by the sanctions of the Union, he said.
Source: MTI
