"Given today's European market conditions, it is clear that procuring such a large quantity is impossible without Russian sources, so Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto recently held talks in Moscow, followed by several commercial negotiations. This led to an agreement, as a result of which yesterday morning Gazprom began deliveries above the already contracted volumes," Menczer said.
Menczer said that the Hungarian government made the decision to purchase some 700 million cubic meters of natural gas in addition to the agreed quantities.
According to the official, Russia will pump 2.6 million cubic meters of natural gas per day in addition to the existing supplies via TurkStream until the end of August. Moscow and Budapest are already discussing this scheme for September.
In July, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto arrived in Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. During the negotiations, Szijjarto expressed interest in buying additional gas supplies from Russia, while Lavrov confirmed that Moscow would consider the request immediately.
Hungary imports approximately 65 percent of its oil and some 80 percent of its gas from Russia, and has rejected Brussels' "unenforceable" and "unjustifiable" plan to cut gas consumption by 15%.
In late May, the Hungarian government declared a nationwide state of emergency in the energy sector, which consisted of a package of seven measures. These include increasing gas production from 1.5 billion cubic meters to 2 billion cubic meters, ensuring additional 700 million cubic meters of gas to fill storage facilities, banning the export of energy and firewood, increasing coal production, accelerating the restart of the Matra coal power plant units, extending the operation of the Paks nuclear power plant and cutting the preferential program of utility payments.