Hungary Exploring Ways to Get Russian Gas if Transit Via Ukraine Stops

Hungary is interested in procuring Russian gas after 2019 even should the transit route through Ukraine be suspended, Ambassador in Moscow Janos Balla said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the ambassador, there are many options and projects, such as the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, but none of them has reached the stage of being implemented.

"Gas supplies are very important to us, as we buy some 80 percent of [our gas] resources from Russia. What will happen after 2019-2020, if the Russian gas stops coming via Ukraine, is an especially important issue for us…We support finding all possible ways for the gas reaching Hungary," Balla told RIA Novosti.

The Turkish Stream is a pipeline expected to below the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey. It is planned that a proposed gas hub on the Greek-Turkish border will receive 47 billion cubic meters of gas annually, while the full capacity of the pipeline will total 63 billion cubic meters.

In October 2014, Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz submitted a claim to a Stockholm court seeking a retroactive revision of its contract with Russia on natural gas transit between 2009 and 2019. It said the Russian energy giant Gazprom owed it $3.2-billion in compensation for gas that was allegedly not delivered during that period, as well as accumulated interest. The total amount claimed is in the excess of $6 billion.

The gas contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz expires in 2019.