The Ministry of Finance of Serbia has announced plans to send 500 million cubic meters of gas to Hungary’s underground storage facilities.
Hungarian Gas Storage’s facility at Zsana, Hungary. Credit: Hungarian Gas Storage website
The Ministry of Finance of Serbia has announced plans to send 500 million cubic meters of gas to Hungary’s underground storage facilities.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced the country’s readiness to share underground gas storages (UGS) with Serbia until next winter. In turn, Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali announced plans to send 500 million cubic meters of gas to Hungarian UGS facilities by the end of June. Representatives of the countries agreed on cooperation in the field of energy security against the background of the aggravated energy crisis in the region.
The Serbian minister noted that by October the country will have about 3 billion cubic meters of gas in reserve in various storage facilities, including Hungarian ones. Hungary is far ahead of its European neighbors in terms of UGS volume. They can hold more than 6 billion cubic meters of gas, which is several times more than Serbian storage facilities. Even despite the fact that Hungary is currently actively stocking up on fuel in anticipation of winter, UGS facilities are about a quarter full.
After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, Hungary and Serbia, like other European countries, are trying to reduce their dependence on Russian energy resources. However, the immediate rejection of fuel from Russia threatens their energy security. Yes, Hungary stated that will not support the proposal EU on the introduction of a full or partial oil embargo against Russia until it receives guarantees of assistance in the event of a cessation of supplies. Indeed, recently it won an exception to the sanctions rule imposed by the European Commission on all member states regarding the oil embargo.
Although Serbia continues to conclude new contracts with Gazprom, she also expects to help other countries to reduce dependence on Russian gas and wants to receive a significant amount of fuel from other suppliers. The completion of the construction of the gas transmission link between Serbia and Bulgaria, scheduled for September 2023, will help achieve the goal.
