Szijjarto has been visiting Moscow for talks since the outbreak of the war in neighbouring Ukraine, despite criticism from both sides of the Atlantic. Landlocked Hungary gets 80-85% of its gas from Russia, and Szijjarto said that last year about 80% of crude imports also arrived from Russia.
While countries in western Europe have made serious efforts to wean themselves off Russian gas, Hungary has been receiving 4.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year from Russia under a 15-year deal signed in 2021.
The gas transits mainly through the Turkstream pipeline, which allows Moscow to bypass Ukraine to carry Russian gas to southern Europe.
"Gazprom maintains the option that if we need it, for preparations for winter or filling up storages....we can buy additional gas on top of the amount set in the long-term deal," Szijjarto said.
Hungary and Russia have not disclosed the possible amount of extra gas which could be supplied by Moscow this year. "Gazprom will consider the possibility of supplying extra contractual volumes of natural gas to Hungary in 2023 and applying a deferred payment for these supplies," Gazprom said in a statement. Szijjarto said Novak reassured him that gas shipments on the Turkstream pipeline will come without disruptions. Turkstream will be stopped for maintenance from June 5 to 12, according to data posted earlier by Bulgarian gas transmission operator Bulgartransgaz. Szijjarto also said that Russia's state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom agreed to modify a contract, originally signed in 2014, to expand Hungary's Paks nuclear plant.
Rosatom was awarded the contract to build two 1.2 gigawatt VVER reactors, adding to the existing four reactors, without an international tender. Szijjarto said construction and financing contracts on the long-delayed project would be modified and that the European Commission would also have to approve the changes. He did not give further details. (Reporting by Krisztina Than and Boldizsar Gyori; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Sharon Singleton and Deepa Babington)
