Hungary opposes the introduction of a ban on the supply of Russian oil and gas to the EU. As the Origo.hu Hungarian information portal reported on Monday, May 2, this was stated by the Head of the Office of the Prime Minister of the country, Gergely Gulyas.
“We should not impose sanctions, from which we ourselves will suffer first of all and not those whom we would like to subject to sanctions,” he said in connection with the discussion in the EU of new measures against Russia, which may include restrictions on energy imports.
In turn, the official representative of the Hungarian government, Zoltan Kovacs, also expressed disagreement with the proposals of a number of EU countries to impose a ban on the purchase of hydrocarbons from the Russian Federation.
“Hungary’s position regarding any oil and gas embargo has not changed: we do not support it,” he replied to a written request from Reuters.
It is noted that Hungary, like most other Eastern European countries, is heavily dependent on energy resources from Russia. Hungarian energy company MVM opened a special account in Gazprombank in April to pay for supplies using the euro-ruble conversion scheme.
In September last year, this company signed two long-term contracts with Gazprom, which provide for the supply of a total of 4.5 billion cubic meters of fuel per year via pipelines through Serbia and Austria bypassing Ukraine. The agreement is designed for 15 years and can be revised 10 years after the start of implementation.
It is also stressed that the only major Danube refinery in Hungary is technologically arranged so that at least 65 per cent of the oil processed there should come from Russia. The general director of the MOL company managing this enterprise, Zsolt Hernadi, noted that it would take “from two to four years and several hundred million dollars” to restructure the production process and switch to other raw materials.
Ru-Main, 02.05.2022
Source: TASS
