October 1 (SeeNews) - Serbia and Hungary officially opened a cross-border interconnection allowing natural gas flow through the TurkStream pipeline of Russia's Gazprom, the Hungarian government said on Friday.
Supplying energy is one of the most important duties of the government as well as a matter of national sovereignty, Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said during the inauguration ceremony, according to a government press release.
The new gas link will transport up to 8.5 billion cubic meters of gas to Hungary annually, with 32% of the first year’s supply already contracted, Szijjarto added.
Gazprom signed on September 27 a 15-year agreement for the supply of 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to Hungary. Gas supplies to Hungary are also carried out under contracts between Gazprom Export and other companies, as well as on the basis of single transactions, Gazprom said back then.
Hungary will start receiving Gazprom's gas via TurkStream through Bulgaria and Serbia as of October 1, Gazprom said.
In December 2019, Serbia completed the laying on its territory of about 400 km of pipes of a string of the TurkStream pipeline for the transit of natural gas to Europe from Turkey via Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary. The country received the first quantities of natural gas through Bulgaria in December 2020. Serbia will receive 13.88 billion cubic metres of gas per year through the pipeline, Bajatovic said back then.