Hungary to block gas transit to Ukraine from July

According to Ukrinform, the decision was reported by dpa citing a decree published overnight.

Experts note that blocking gas transit to Ukraine raises serious legal questions. Gas trading is handled by private companies, including firms that trade in the energy commodity and those that handle its transport through pipelines. In Hungary, this is pipeline operator FGSZ, a subsidiary of oil and gas group MOL.

Orbán's decree prohibits Hungarian operator FGSZ from offering capacities for transit to the entry points into Ukraine from July onwards. The company has already sold capacities for the second quarter, until June, and interference with those contracts would have exposed the government to enormous compensation claims.

According to Ukraine’s state gas transmission operator, last year about 44% of Ukraine’s gas imports came via Hungary.

As previously reported, on Wednesday, Orbán stated that Hungary would gradually stop supplying gas to Ukraine until the transit of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline — damaged earlier by Russian attacks on Ukraine — is restored.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi commented that the only consequence of Orbán’s refusal to export gas to Ukraine would be depriving Hungary of $1 billion annually in revenue from gas sales.

Photo credit: pixabay