Natural gas supply from Ukraine is proceeding according to contract and the strategic gas reserves are being filled continuously, announced Miklós Seszták, Minister for National Development on Thursday in Algyő, Hungary.
Following a site visit to the Szőreg-1 underground natural gas storage reservoir, the Minister also confirmed that MMBF Földgáztároló Zrt. (Hungary’s strategic gas reserve operator) will comply with its statutory obligation of storing 915 million cubic meters of strategic gas by June 30.
"No worries, we have gas" – he said adding also: the already stored volume of 2 billion cubic meters of gas could be sufficient for ensuring the supply for several months even during the winter period.
Miklós Seszták informed that two days ago he had talks with the Russian Energy Minister in Vienna, who also confirmed Russia’s intention to comply with all the contractual terms.
The Government also conducts negotiations in order for the commercial storage capacities to be filled. An advantage of this being that it does not require funds from the central budget, yet a gas stock is delivered to Hungary, said the Minister.
István Gáti, General Manager of MMBF Földgáztároló Zrt. asserted that filling of the strategic gas reserve began on May 9 and will be completed by Monday. In addition to this, a commercial stock of 500 million cubic meters is also stored in the Szőreg-1 underground natural gas storage reservoir.
In response to a question, the expert added that daily gas consumption is dependent upon the weather conditions. In case of an eventual conflict, if gas supply through the eastern border stopped, the gas storage reservoirs, domestic production and gas supply from the west together with the soon-to-be-commissioned Slovak gas pipeline could satisfy even a daily consumption of 70 million cubic meters, therefore there could not be any problem this winter.
(Ministry of National Development)
