Hungary's gas supplies hit by Russia-Ukraine dispute
(BUDAPEST) - Hungary was having to tap heavily into its gas reserves on Tuesday when daily deliveries of Russian gas were hit by a dispute between Russia and the Ukraine, German company E.ON which manages the reserves said.
"On an hourly basis, the reserves are being used at their maximum, but on daily level, we're still far from the highest possible outtake of 51.5 million cubic metres," said E.ON spokesman Istvan Kutas.
"The amount of Russian gas coming in both from the east (from the Ukraine) and the west (from Austria, via Slovakia) has significantly decreased," Kutas told AFP.
More precise figures would be available later on Tuesday, Kutas said.
Hungary's daily gas consumption amounts to 68-70 million cubic metres, made up of 38 million cubic metres received via Ukraine, about six million cubic metres flowing in from Austria via Slovakia, around four million cubic metres from the country's own gas fields and the rest provided from reserves, which are topped up during the summer months.
FGSZ, the gas transmission unit of energy giant MOL, said in a statement earlier that only about 30 million cubic metres of Russian gas were expected to arrive via the Ukraine on Tuesday, the same amount as on Monday.
The volume of imported gas from Austria would also be "restricted," the statement said, without specifying by exactly how much.
"The situation changes from minute to minute. We need more time to be able to provide exact figures," a spokeswoman for FGSZ said.
FGSZ chief Janos Zsuga said that the shortfall would be replaced from reserves, with volumes of 3.5 billion cubic metres.
On Monday, Hungarian Energy Minister Csaba Molnar had said that deliveries of Russian gas to Hungary had fallen by about 20 percent owing to a payment dispute between Russia and Ukraine.
The amount of gas reaching Hungary via Austria has droped because Ukraine is restricting deliveries to western Europe via Slovakia, the head of the subsisidary of the MOL group responsible for the Hungarian gas network said.
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