Analysis

Hungary sees Bulgaria as main energy partner

Bulgaria is Hungary’s main partner when it comes to energy issues and the diversification of supply, according to State Secretary for Information and the International Representation of Hungary Tamás Menczer, who inaugurated a gas metering station and 11 kilometres of gas pipeline in Gorska Polyana, in Bulgaria, jointly with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

“Energy is an issue of national security, and for precisely this reason the Hungarian government is striving to ensure that natural gas can arrive in Hungary from as many sources and via as many routes as possible,” Mr Menczer said.

“The construction of the Southern Gas Corridor is a certain source of route diversification and also provides an opportunity for source diversification,” he added. “Source and route diversification not only facilitates a secure energy supply but also ensures that commercial and industrial consumers have access to cheap gas and that utility prices remain low because all this is vital to maintaining competitiveness in a continuously changing world.”

Shipments of natural gas from Russia to the Turkish market will already be beginning this year via the first Turkish Stream pipeline, and the second strand of the pipeline is also under construction, with the gas arriving having the opportunity to be transported along the Southern Gas Corridor along the Bulgaria-Serbia-Hungary route.