Government: Russia delivers 85 pc of the gas consumed in Hungary

The government is fulfilling environmental targets while boosting competitiveness, an official of the ministry of technology and industry told Mediaworks in an interview, published in daily Magyar Nemzet on Monday.

State secretary Zsófia Koncz said that protecting the utility cut scheme and developing new green energy resources were among the most important tasks of the ministry. In recent years, the government carried out large investment projects for energy diversification, she said. Whereas in 2010, Hungary only had two interconnectors with neighbouring countries, currently it is connected with six of the seven neighbouring countries, she added.

The economy continues to be mostly dependent on Russian gas, as are Germany and several other European countries due to geographical characteristics, the structure of the market and existing infrastructure, she said. Weaning the country from Russian gas would be a lengthy process taking several years but the achievements of recent years, such as the expanded infrastructure and new interconnectors now enable Hungary to import natural gas from several other resources, she added. “In physical terms, we are currently able to receive supplies from any direction, the only condition left is to sign the corresponding agreements,” she said.

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Currenly, however,

Russia delivers some 85 percent of the natural gas consumed in Hungary,