Hungary has reached an agreement with Russia on all the conditions of the new long-term agreement on gas supply, which will enter into force on October 1, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced on his Facebook profile yesterday. Szijjarto stated that the new contract with Gazprom refers to a period of 15 years, with the possibility of modifying the amount of purchases after 10 years.
Russian gas giant Gazprom will annually deliver 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Hungary in two directions – 3.5 billion cubic meters will go through Serbia, and one billion through Austria, the British agency adds.
Namely, at the beginning of July, the public company Srbijagas and the Hungarian company FGSZ connected the gas pipeline Turkish Stream on the border with Hungary, through which gas from Russia will arrive in Hungary via Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia from October 1, all the way To Austria.
– This only means that Serbia is becoming an important transit country for Central Europe. Since contracts with European countries are signed with Gazprom for 10, 15 and even 20 years, as is the case with Austria, it is clear that Gazprom is the only reliable supplier of blue fuel as soon as it guarantees that it will have it for deliveries a decade or more in advance. – Dusan Bajatovic, General Manager of Srbijagas, says for Politika commenting on the announcements from Hungary.
He adds that it is also important that Serbia will now be able to charge a transit tax for all quantities of gas that pass through our territory.
Asked whether we will be as cruel to Hungary as it was to us when it charged us transit several times more expensive than other countries and plus penalties whenever we did not withdraw all the quantities of gas we had reserved, at a time when it arrived only through Ukraine.
– The transit price will include the real costs of transport and maintenance of the gas network. Part of the money will also be used to repay the loan that financed the gas pipeline. Part goes to the state, and part to Srbijagas and Gastrans, which built the gas pipeline – states the first man of Srbijagas.
The most important thing is that in this way, in addition to the existing gas pipeline through Ukraine, which will continue to receive some quantities, Serbia has another two-way interconnector, which helps it remain open to the gas market.
Bajatovic adds that our country will soon define a new long-term contract on gas supply with Gazprom, but that it is not good that gas prices have gone so high. However, they will not change until the end of the year.
In any case, gasification is being done extensively in Serbia. Belgrade and Novi Sad have already been completed, the rest of Serbia will be gasified wherever there is a need for it, with all the discounts that Srbijagas gives when it comes to the method of payment, because thanks to long-term contracts with Gazprom, no one will be here it will no longer freeze, Bajatovic concluded, Politika reports.
