Hungarian Conservative

According to the Hungarian Ministry of Energy, Hungarian gas consumption, similarly to the previous cycle, decreased by a fifth in the last period observed, outperforming the compulsory target prescribed for EU member states.

Approximately 8.5 billion cubic metres of gas was used, indicating a decrease of 1 billion cubic metres, or 10.9 per cent, compared to the 2022 level, and a substantial 2.5 billion cubic metres, or 23 per cent, reduction compared to 2021, as reported by the Ministry of Energy.

Gazprom is making efforts to compensate for the losses in the European markets, which occurred following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, partly due to the explosions in the Baltic Sea pipelines of the Nord Stream project.

The National Assembly of Bulgaria passed a new, €10.2 per megawatt-hour tax on Russian gas coming through the TurkStream pipeline. President Aleksandar Vučić of Serbia and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó of Hungary have condemned the decision.

The Foreign Minister stressed the importance of Azeri-Hungarian cooperation, which he claims has greatly helped Hungary in energy security in the past decade, and called on Brussels to ‘do more than nudging’ to help member states diversify their energy sources.

‘Since the European Union currently refuses to contribute to the financing, Brussels has lost any right to intervene in where Central European countries, including Hungary, source their natural gas from,’ Péter Szijjártó stated.

The ministry emphasised that combined cycle gas turbine power plants can be built relatively quickly, have exceptionally high efficiency, low specific carbon dioxide emissions, and their capacity can be adjusted to consumption levels.

The Prime Minister travelled to Doha on Sunday, where he is taking part in an official visit upon the invitation of Qatar’s Prime Minister and delivered a speech at the Qatari Economic Forum upon the invitation of the Qatari Emir.

‘Hungarian-Serbian strategic energy cooperation is one of the guarantees that Hungary’s supply will remain secure in the next period,’ the minister said.

Fidesz MEP András Gyürk emphasised that creating modern energy storage facilities is a costly endeavour, so he called upon the European Commission to ‘provide immediate access to each member state to the funds they are entitled to.’

Budapest energy prices were the lowest among capitals that are part of the European Union. As far as Europe is concerned, prices were the lowest in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The minister emphasised that the current situation is lethal for Europe’s competitiveness, with gas prices seven times higher than in the United States and electricity three times higher than in China. ‘Under the current circumstances, the solution is to focus on the supply side instead of the demand and bring as much gas to the European market as possible,’ he nailed down.

The war in Ukraine has been ravaging European economy for the past year. Marking the recent one-year anniversary of the invasion, this article looks at the economic sanctions imposed upon Russia and assesses their effect.

The Hungarian government has offered a €25,000 grant for demining the war-torn Nagorno-Karabakh region only weeks after the two countries struck an agreement about importing green energy from Azerbaijan to Hungary.

On his Blue Planet podcast, János Áder, former President of Hungary sat down to talk to the mayors of Kaposvár and Debrecen to discuss the progress the cities have made regarding their commitment to reduce their carbon footprint by 80 per cent by 2050.

Péter Szijjártó said the process of doubling the capacity of the gas interconnector between Serbia and Hungary by 2028 is on pace. With the two new nuclear power units at the Paks plant set to enter commercial operation in the early 2030s, both countries’ electricity supply will also remain secure.

The level of cooperation between Baku and Budapest was raised to the next level this week by the signing of a declaration on enhanced strategic partnership.

Energy-intensive industries are starting to migrate to America because of the much cheaper gas and electricity available there—POLITICO cited Belgian chemical giant Solvay as an example, which recently announced that it would no longer make any investments in Europe and would take all its production to America.

By 2050, Hungary hopes to dramatically reduce its reliance on imported gas, from its present 11.5 billion cubic metres per year, by cutting its annual gas consumption to no more than 3-4 billion cubic metres and increasing the production of non-fossil fuels.

The government decided to extend price caps to shield people from the negative impact of the war in Ukraine and of the sanctions imposed on Russia, the minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Saturday.

On Thursday, Gergely Gulyás held his regular press briefing detailing the government’s latest measures to tackle the energy crisis.

While most EU member states have higher levels of gas stored, Hungary does better than the majority in terms of its annual gas consumption compared to the amount of gas stored, which is a more realistic indicator of the security of supply.

According to the head of a Bavarian clinic, finding a hospital that can treat you quickly won’t be that easy in the future.

European consumers may face the prospect of energy rationing in the winter, Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden has warned.

A new deal with Azerbaijan to increase natural gas imports may bring Europe back from the brink of catastrophe.

The energy-intensive sections of France’s industry are converting their boilers from gas to oil-based ones, in order to prevent any outages due to gas-shortages.

With the expansion of the nuclear plant at Paks, the gas consumption of Hungary could be reduced to half.