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Hungary keen to diversify its energy supplies, open to solutions
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Hungary is keen to diversify its energy supplies and, besides the Russian gas, use other sources of energy, a foreign ministry official said on the sidelines of an international conference held jointly by the Atlantic Council think-tank and Hungary.
Besides top US and EU officials, US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry attended the International Gas Conference.
“The programme’s aim is to introduce and promote the energy diversification,” Pál Ságvári, Hungary’s roving ambassador, told MTI on Monday. “Hungary only purchases Russian gas at present and we intend to change this situation in the near future.”
By 2020, Hungary aims to have a more diverse supply of energy, he added.
Energy union within the European Union has political as well as economic aspects, he said. Building infrastructure is economic while the political goal is to create energy supplies for each member state from at least three different sources, thereby securing their independence in a competitive environment. “For Hungary, broadening our energy supply after 2020 is a national security issue.”
Currently American LNG is still more expensive than Russian or Norwegian gas, but Europe is likely to see strong competition for fixed gas and LNG in the next 5-10 years, Ságvári said.
It is important to note that Russian gas will still be on the Hungarian market after 2020, he said, but Hungary will be in a better position with more options at its disposal, he added.
The EU’s north-south corridor linking the Baltics to the Balkans and Polish and Lithuanian LNG terminals to the Croatian and Romanian coasts is the key plan for Hungary. “The anticipated energy imports from Romania and the Black Sea are what we’re concentrating on,” he said, adding that producers would still be able to make the necessary investments this year.