EU nation slams Brussels over Russian gas

The European Union is not providing enough financial aid to help smaller, landlocked member states to move away from imports of Russian natural gas, according to Hungary’s energy security chief, as cited by Reuters.

Speaking at the Gastech conference in Houston on Wednesday, Csaba Marosvari said the member states that still rely on Moscow when it comes to energy security “have received more and more pressure” from Brussels to shift away from “Russian fuels faster, but they refuse to provide the funds for us to be able to do this.”

Hungary continues to buy Russian gas under a 15-year contract signed with energy giant Gazprom in 2021. The EU nation also imports Russian oil, which it gets under an exemption from Brussels’ sanctions. Between January and April 2024, 41% of oil and 82% of natural gas imported by Hungary originated in Russia, according to Fitch.

Marosvari explained that smaller member states in the bloc cannot afford to launch and service projects that are vital for diversifying energy purchases.

“In our region there are small countries, small markets, few significant market players, lack of capital, these kinds of infrastructure and ‘de-bottlenecking’ projects can cost up to hundreds of millions of euros – in fuel market terms, it is not feasible to fulfill.”

The energy official said the European Commission had taken some steps toward financing green energy projects to end reliance on fossil fuels, but some nations have been left out of the mix.

According to Marosvari, Budapest recently signed some short-term deals for purchasing liquefied natural gas from Azerbaijan and Türkiye to help cut its dependence on energy imports from Russia. Hungary also expects Türkiye and Greece to become more significant suppliers of pipeline gas and LNG in the future.

“The Russians are delivering according to the contracts, for us they are reliable but this does not mean we have to stick to one single source, so we have been conducting a diversification strategy for supply,” he said, adding that Hungary doesn’t “put all the eggs in one basket.”

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