Hungary says EU not doing enough to end Russian gas dependence

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By Georgina McCartney

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Hungary’s energy security chief on Wednesday slammed the European Union for not providing enough support to help smaller, landlocked countries move away from Russian natural gas.

Csaba Marosvari, Hungary’s deputy state secretary for energy security, told attendees at the Gastech conference in Houston that smaller, landlocked states, including Hungary, need more funding to cut reliance on Russian gas.

Around two-thirds of Hungary’s gas imports come from Russia, but pressure is mounting for the country along with some of its neighbors to diversify more quickly away from Russian energy, following Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“In our region there are small countries, small markets, few significant market players, lack of capital, these kinds of infrastructure and de-bottlenecking projects can cost up to hundreds of millions of euros – in fuel market terms it is not feasible to fulfill,” Marosvari said.

The European Commission’s move toward financing green energy projects to end reliance on fossil fuels has left some countries out of the mix, according to Marosvari.

“As a result of the war in Ukraine, we received stronger and stronger pressure to diversify faster away from Russian fuels, but they deny the funds to be able to do that,” he added.

Hungary has been receiving 4.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year from Russia under a 15-year deal signed in 2021.

Marosvari said Hungary has signed some short-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) deals with Azerbaijan and Turkey to help cut its dependence on Russian sources. It also expects Turkey and Greece to become more significant suppliers of pipeline gas and LNG in the future.

“You don’t put all your eggs in one basket, this is true of natural gas supply as well,” Marosvari said.

“The Russians are delivering according to the contracts, for us they are reliable but this does not mean we have to stick to one single source, so we have been conducting a diversification strategy for supply.”