Gas supplies from Russia to Hungary uninterrupted

"The pressure of Hungary's natural gas pipeline lessened on Friday but had returned to normal levels by Sunday night, and the gas delivered was also in line with contracted amounts," communication director of E.ON Földgázszállító István Kutas said on Sunday.

Pressure in the pipeline fell to 45 bars, but that still enables the company to deliver gas through pipelines. Russia, which supplies a quarter of Europe’s gas, 80% of which is transported through Ukraine, suspended delivery to the latter country six days ago due to a financial dispute. Some countries reported a shortage in deliveries, although Hungary did not.

Ukraine shipped 37 million m3 of gas a day to Hungary over the weekend, in line with the contracted amount, although on Friday Ukraine told the gas transmission subsidiary of MOL, FGSZ Földgázszállító, that the shipment would be reduced by 5 million m3. Later it was confirmed this did not occur.

Hungary's daily gas consumption is roughly 63-64 million m3, but a one Celsius drop in temperature creates an additional demand of 3-4 million m3. Hungary has a total of 3.1 billion m3 reserves held by MOL and E.ON and a safety reserve of 500 million m3 that can be tapped in emergency situations.

Energy Minster Csaba Molnár said the government has contingency plans for emergencies and a commission is monitoring the situation. The EU has called on the parties to resolve the issue.

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