Hungary has been supplied with natural gas from Russia since 1995.
A new contract has now been negotiated.
Hungary has thus become heavily dependent on Gazprom
Hungary * has signed a new gas supply contract with Gazprom.
Russian natural gas will be delivered through the new TurkStream gas pipeline.
Ukraine is left out as a transit country.
The Russian contract partners lure the Hungarians with financial advantages.
In the long term, the current advantages could be directed against Hungary.
Budapest - Primary energy consumption in Hungary has remained extremely constant over the past decade.
According to the Statistical Review of World Energy 2021, Hungary is one of the less energy-intensive economies in the European Union with just under 1 EJ of primary energy consumption.
More than a third of primary energy consumption comes from natural gas.
In contrast to other countries in the region, Hungary consumes little coal.
A significant proportion of the electricity supply can be traced back to nuclear power, while the renewable energy sources (0.06 EJ) still account for an extremely small proportion of energy production.
There are hardly any wind turbines in Hungary, but there is a dynamic expansion of photovoltaics and geothermal systems.
Hungary: Renewable energies currently do not play a major role
In total, Hungary had a low emission volume of 45.7 million tons of CO2 in 2020.
In contrast, the volume of emissions last year was 85.1 tonnes in the Czech Republic and a full 604.6 tonnes in Germany.
Renewable energy sources are currently of very little importance in Hungarian climate policy.
The further reduction of CO2 emissions in terms of pan-European climate policy is to be achieved primarily through nuclear power and the abandonment of coal in favor of natural gas.
In 2020 Hungary consumed over 10 billion m³ of energy.
A comparable amount was required in 2019.
At that time, almost 10 billion m³ were ordered from Russia and the gas storage facilities were filled.
Hungary wanted to be prepared for 2020 in case Russia * restricts transfers via Ukraine.
Hungary: New gas supply contract with problems
The Hungary expert Dominik Héjj from the Institute of Central Europe (IES) pointed out in his thematic dossier on energy policy in Hungary from November 2019 that the Hungarian government is viewing the previous transfer route via Ukraine with increasing skepticism.
She fears that if the transfer volume is restricted, there is a risk that too little gas will be delivered to Hungary.
In fact, the Hungarian fears have actually materialized at this point in time, because the contract partners, such as Slovakia and Hungary, are hardly supplied any more via the Ukraine.
As a result, the supply situation in these countries is becoming increasingly problematic.
Hungary wanted to anticipate this situation and decided to sign a contract, which has been in effect since October 1, via two alternative transfer routes.
In June 2020, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó expressed the desire to negotiate new contracts with Gazprom.
The Hungarians had three contracts with a duration of 5 years each in mind.
At that time, Szijjártó emphasized that short contract periods would allow Hungary to choose a cheaper option after 5 years if necessary.
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Hungary's Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó together with Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
© PuzzlePix / Imago
Hungary's new gas deal: the country has embarked on a risky deal
In parallel to the negotiations with Gazprom, Hungary secured access to the liquid gas terminal on the Croatian island of Krk in mid-2020.
Here the LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) is supplied by the Shell energy company for Hungary.
In this context, Szijjártó once again emphasized that Hungary wants to be guided solely by security of supply and the price of its orders.
The country would like to be able to decide flexibly and rationally.
Hungary's original ideas have hardly been fulfilled in this year's negotiations with Gazprom.
Instead, the country has embarked on a risky deal.
Szijjártó announced at the end of August after a meeting with the CEO of Gazprom Group:
“The long-term gas supply contract concluded in 1995 between Hungary and Russia is now expiring.
It was therefore decided that our home country should conclude a new long-term gas supply contract with Russia in order to achieve stable and predictable energy supply security in the long term.
Today we agreed on all the details and matters related to this agreement. "
Hungary's new gas contract: negotiations in favor of Russia
The new supply contract with a contract term of 15 years guarantees Hungary 4.5 billion m³ of natural gas annually. Instead of the previous transfer route via the Ukrainian national territory, it is contractually stipulated that 3.5 billion m³ will be delivered to Hungary via the new TurkStream gas pipeline via Serbia and 1-1.5 billion m³ via Austria. This new route completely bypasses the previous route via Ukraine. So far the negotiations have proceeded entirely in the interests of Russia.
The energy expert and editor-in-chief of the energy portal Biznesalert Wojciech Jakóbik assumes that the Hungarian side could soon be disappointed.
Although the specific gas price has not been published, it can be assumed that this price appears cheap against the background of the current highs on the world markets.
But if the gas price normalizes again in the medium term, the price advantage that Hungary is now reaping will no longer be particularly high, but the dependence on Gazprom will remain for many years.
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Hungary: New reactor blocks from Rosatom - including approval for Russian state loan
The Hungarian nuclear power plant in Paks with a total output of 2 GW generates 0.14 EJ annually, which corresponds to around 15 percent of the country's total energy production.
In the area of pure electricity generation, it is even 50 percent of consumption.
The Paks plant went into operation in 1982 with the first reactor block.
Soviet-designed pressurized water reactors from the VVER-440 series are used.
In 2014, Hungary decided to expand the nuclear power plant by two more units.
Rosatom received the order, although both the French and the Americans had expressed interest.
The decisive factor was the approval of a Russian government loan to finance the majority of the project.
Not much has happened since then.
The experts now estimate the delays at around four years.
The representatives of the Hungarian government said that the new nuclear reactors should go into operation in 2028-2029.
This time perspective can now be interpreted as pure wishful thinking, since not even all permits for the construction have been received at the moment.
(Aleksandra Fedorska) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
