Orban’s Hungary promises to continue using Russian gas

One day After acquiring shares in an Azerbaijani gas field, Hungary said it would not give up Russian natural gas and that it intended to strengthen trade deals with Russia in areas not subject to sanctions.

The move comes as pro-Russian Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is under pressure ahead of European Union elections on June 9, in which his ruling Fidesz party faces a tough challenger.

The transaction follows Hungarian MGM Group’s acquisition of a 5% stake in the Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan, which is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, BNE Intellinews reported.

The deposit of Shah Deniz, managed by BP, it is one of the largest in the world and produces almost 30 billion cubic meters per year; the new agreement with Hungary will guarantee the country 1.5 billion cubic meters per year. The acquisition “provides us with protection against significant fluctuations in energy prices,” said Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto.

Thursday, Reuters quoted Szijjarto as “impossible to secure Hungary’s energy supply without Russian energy resources, and this has nothing to do with politics or ideology, but is rooted in the simple facts of physics.”

According to the BNE, from 2021, with the signing of a 15-year supply agreement with Moscow, Hungary will import around 4.5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year.

The relationships between Hungary and the United States they continued to sour exponentially following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the spring of 2022, with Orban consistently refusing to stand against Russia regarding Ukraine.

Orban’s suggestion Hungarian media late Wednesday to try to expand non-oil trade ties with Russia also angered Washington.
The Hungarian government claims to be the “party of peace” while continuing to side with Putin’s war party.

Hungary’s dependence on Russian energy is dangerous and unnecessary,” US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman said on Facebook, as reported by Reuters.

Earlier in the week, S&P Global reported that the EU was preparing to put the finishing touches on its 14th Russian energy sanctions package this month, with sanctions targets that include shipments of Russian LNG.

The sanctions package adds three Russian LNG projects to the blacklist, including Arctic LNG 2, Ust-Luga and Murmansk. The 14th EU sanctions package, however, is far from a done deal: it requires all EU member states to agree to the deal and some clear opponents are waiting to derail the package.