“Hungary’s energy security could improve by never before seen levels if we can also purchase natural gas via Croatia and Romania”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister declared on Thursday in Budapest following a meeting with European Commissioner for Energy Miguel Arias Cañete.
At their meeting on Friday in Budapest the energy ministers of the countries of the Central and South-eastern European countries will be signing a memorandum of understanding on realising the north-south gas corridor along the Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary route through developing existing pipelines and connecting their national gas networks instead of by building a large, new pipeline, Mr. Szijjártó told the press.
As part of the developments, Hungary will gain access to the southern gas corridor, i.e. to natural gas arriving in Europe from Azerbaijan, and later possibly from Central Asia, via the Romanian-Hungarian interconnector, the connection of Hungary’s and Romania’s gas networks.
“This north-south infrastructure is of key importance to Hungary and its absence represents a major energy security and national security risk to the countries of Central Europe”, the Minster declared.
According to the expectations of the Hungarian Government, work on enabling the two-way flow of natural gas through the Hungarian-Croatian gas pipeline could begin following Croatia’s parliamentary elections this weekend, he added.
“Having access to natural gas from Croatia and Romania would be a huge step forward from the point of view of Hungary’s energy security”, he declared.
Mr. Szijjártó told the press that on Friday the parties would be signing a statement on the development of Romania’s internal gas pipeline system and on the Bulgarian-Romanian interconnector, both of which are vital to the realisation of the north-south gas corridor.
The European Commission’s Energy Commissioner, Miguel Arias Cañete, called for the construction of the liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal on the island of Krk, Croatia, and praised Hungary’s involvement in the establishment of the Central European regional natural gas network connection and its energy-related cooperation in general.