Gas is constantly arriving in Hungary, but if this were not the case, the supply for the winter and the following period would still be ensured, said the State Secretary responsible for bilateral relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on the M1 yesterday.

Tamás Menczer stated that the filling rate of Hungarian gas storage tanks is approximately double the European average in terms of consumption.

However, it must also be seen that two fundamental conditions for Hungarian energy security and gas supply are whether there is a long-term agreement with Russia and the smooth operation of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline. Gas comes to Hungary via the pipeline from the south, through Serbia, and last year alone, 4.8 billion cubic meters came, which is almost half of the ten billion cubic meters of Hungarian annual consumption. Regardless of these, the government is constantly looking for opportunities to diversify gas procurement, he added.

In 2010, Hungary only had gas connections with two neighboring countries, and now it has six.

However, Russian gas accounts for 85 percent of Hungary's gas consumption; for oil it is 65 percent. This cannot be changed overnight, the politician emphasized.

The experts see three possibilities for this: increasing the LNG capacities in Croatia - by the way, the government has already committed one billion cubic meters of liquefied gas -, production must finally begin at the Neptun Deep gas field in Romania, and Azeri gas must be brought to Hungary. Each option requires a lot of money, time and serious infrastructural developments, so Russian gas cannot be replaced at the moment, Tamás Menczer emphasized.

This clearly shows that

how irresponsible the left-wing politicians were when they talked about immediately cutting off Russian gas, added the state secretary.

According to data from the Central Statistical Office (KSH), in December 2022, overall, natural gas was consumed in Hungary by nearly 24 percent less than a year earlier. Households reduced their natural gas consumption by more than 23 percent and economic operators by nearly 25 percent in the last month of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.

According to KSH data, last year's annual gas consumption decreased by 17 percent compared to the year before last. A significant decrease can also be seen in the use of electricity, which was more than seven percent in December and nearly three percent in 2022 compared to 2021. In addition to the mild weather, the significant drop is also due to conscious consumer behavior due to the increase in energy prices caused by sanctions and the government's savings measures, the KSH survey revealed.

Source: Hungarian Nation

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