Hungary prepared to renew gas shipments to Ukraine on Jan 1

13:59, 09.10.2014 1 min read

The launch of the Slovak-Hungarian gas pipeline at full capacity on January 1, 2015, will allow the country to renew gas shipments to Ukraine if necessary, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of a summit in Milan on Wednesday.

"With the full launch of the Slovak-Hungarian interconnector [gas pipeline] on January 1, 2015, we will be able to ship not only Russian gas to Ukraine if our Ukrainian friends want this," the Hungarian government quoted Orban as saying on its Web site.

He noted that Hungary intended to follow a single European energy policy, though the country's priority is currently to guarantee its own energy security and to fill its gas reservoirs.

As reported, Hungary halted gas transport to Ukraine on the evening of September 25 due to technical reasons and "until further notice." Ukraine's national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy linked the event with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller's visit to Budapest and with gas talks between Ukraine, Russia and the EU.