- In September, the Hungarian company MVM signed two long-term contracts with Gazprom, which provided for the supply of a total of 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year via pipelines through Serbia and Austria, bypassing Ukraine
According to TASS, Russia's state-owned news agency article published on October 19, 2022, the authorities of the Netherlands have returned previously revoked export licenses to the company which maintains the TurkStream gas pipeline. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations of Hungary Peter Szijjarto announced on Wednesday in a video posted on Facebook (banned in Russia, owned by Meta corporation, recognized as extremist in Russia).
Szijjarto added that he had learned about the news a day earlier from the Minister for Climate and Energy Policy of the Netherlands, Rob Jetten.
"Yesterday he informed me that the Dutch authorities had issued export licenses to theircompany, and Gazprom confirmed that it had received the licenses. This means that the work of the TurkStream gas pipeline is now fully assured and guaranteed in the long term," Szijjarto said.
Szijjarto explained that a company registered in the Netherlands is engaged in the maintenance of one of the TurkStream sections. A few weeks ago, its licenses were revoked by the authorities due to EU sanctions against Russia. According to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, this did not pose a threat to the gas pipeline, but could complicate its work. The return of the licenses is "very important, because this is the only gas pipeline in Europe, which today transports gas from east to west," the minister said.
In September of last year, the Hungarian company MVM signed two long-term contracts with Gazprom, which provided for the supply of a total of 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year via pipelines through Serbia and Austria, bypassing Ukraine.
In late August of this year, Hungary signed a two-month contract with Gazprom for the supply of an additional 5.8 million cubic meters of gas per day starting on September 1. Since use of the Nord Stream has now proved difficult, during Szijjarto's recent visit to Moscow, an agreement was reached to increase Russian gas supplies to Hungary along the southern route - via the TurkStream pipeline and its extension through Bulgaria and Serbia.
