Hungary, a member of the European Union, announced on Saturday that Russia had begun delivering more natural gas to it than had been foreseen in its previous trade deals, following a visit by its foreign minister to Moscow in July.
The Hungarian Foreign Ministry explained that trade negotiations with Moscow “have made it possible to reach an agreement”, for which the Russian company Gazprom began to deliver on Friday “volumes higher than those mentioned in the contract.”
Until the end of August, an additional daily volume of 2.6 million cubic meters per day will arrive from the south through the Turkstream pipeline, it said, adding that negotiations were underway regarding September deliveries.
reduction plan
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto made an impromptu trip to Moscow in July to discuss the purchase of an additional 700 million cubic meters of gas, on top of the 4.5 billion delivered each year to Budapest before the conflict in Ukraine.
The EU began implementing a plan this week to cut its gas consumption by 15% to tackle rising energy prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
However, some countries in the European bloc are reluctant to strictly follow the plan, which in any case speaks of “voluntary demand reduction”.
Hungary, which depends on gas transported directly from Russia, has requested an exception regime.
Source: BFM TV
