The examination of potential scenarios modelling natural gas supply disruptions has been completed. A debate on the European Commission communiqué summarising the findings of the examination and the related short-term, long-term and country-specific recommendations has started in recent days.

According to the worst scenario modelled by the European Commission, in case Russia stopped all natural gas deliveries to Europe, the Hungarian Government would be able to guarantee meeting household gas demands by exploiting the currently existing and steadily growing gas reserves in the country’s gas reservoirs and implementing the restrictive measures laid down in the regulations.

Since the examinations were completed, the volume of natural gas stored in Hungarian reservoirs has significantly grown. At the moment there is a volume of over 4.1 billion m3 at consumers’ disposal and entry into storage has not been completed yet. The current volume stored is some 10% higher than the total physical capacity of natural gas reservoirs six years ago.

Hungary is committed to the construction of the Hungarian-Slovakian cross-border natural gas pipeline. The construction phase of the pipeline is soon to be completed so test run will begin this year already. The Hungarian Government continues monitoring the investment and, keeping supply security and EU commitments in view, will take all the necessary measures to ensure that the commercial operation of the pipeline could start in the beginning of 2015.

The Government of Hungary supports infrastructure developments serving the diversification of routes and sources at all times. The construction of cross-border supply pipelines meeting EU requirements and enabling bi-directional delivery, especially of cross-border pipelines between Croatia/Hungary and Romania/Hungary is important for Hungary. The implementation of the relevant earlier agreements and the successful completion of the relevant bilateral discussions as soon as possible are thus high priority goals.

(Ministry of National Development)