Russia & Hungary agree on terms of Russian gas supply for 15 years

Hungary and Russia have reached a new long-term agreement on the supply of Russian gas, which will come into force on October 1 this year, Hungary’s foreign minister announced on Monday.

“The new agreement with [Russia’s state gas producer] Gazprom is designed for 15 years, with the possibility of changing the volume of gas purchases in 10 years. Gazprom will annually supply 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Hungary,” Peter Szijjarto said on his Facebook page, noting that 3.5 billion of these will be supplied through Serbia and one billion through Austria.

Szijjarto made the announcement after a working meeting with the head of Gazprom, Alexey Miller, in Russia’s St. Petersburg.

The minister stressed that, due to the details of the new deal, Hungary will buy gas “at a much better price than under the expiring contract,” which was signed in 2020 and ends in September. Also, the new agreement raises Hungary’s supply by nearly 7% from last year’s 4.2 billion cubic meters.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that apart from the gas deal, the two countries were working towards a contract for the construction of the Paks 2 nuclear power plant (NPP) in Hungary.

Russia's state nuclear construction company Rosatom is to build Hungary's new nuclear plant at the central Hungarian Paks site. The Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority has until September to approve a licence application by Paks 2 Zrt, Hungary's state-owned company developing the plant, and Rosatom is expected to be able to begin construction next year.

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