Hungary and Slovakia have increased their natural gas imports from Russia, following the completion of the Ukrainian transit pipeline and the start of gas deliveries via the TurkStream pipeline. According to Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, the pipeline connecting the two countries has increased its capacity by 900 million cubic meters per year, bringing the total to 3.5 billion cubic meters annually.
The decision by Ukraine to stop transit of Russian gas, effective as of January, had put Budapest and Bratislava in a difficult situation. However, the availability of the TurkStream pipeline and the gas pipeline between Hungary and Slovakia has allowed the problem to be partially solved and alleviated.
In January, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico expressed optimism that Russian energy giant Gazprom would find a way to deliver gas to Slovakia, despite the disruption of the Ukrainian transit. Szijjártó announced that Hungary would provide Bratislava with transit capacity, allowing Russia to supply blue gas to Slovakia via the southern route.
On February 1, Russia began delivering gas to the largest Slovak energy company, SPP, via the TurkStream pipeline. The current contract with Gazprom Export is valid until 2034.
SPP’s chairman, Vojtech Ferenc, had previously announced that Gazprom would significantly increase gas deliveries to Slovakia via Hungary from April.
The agreement on Russian gas deliveries to Europe via Ukraine expired on December 31, with Kiev refusing to extend it, even for third countries. As a result, Gazprom stopped gas production on January 1, indicating that it had lost the technical and legal possibility to deliver gas through Ukraine.