HUNGARY

Pursuant to a decision of the National Assembly of March 14, 2024, promulgated on March 19, 2024, on a proposal by the executive director of Bulgartransgaz EAD Vladimir Malinov the Management Board and the Supervisory Board of the company took the decision for carrying-out a public procurement in relation to the initiative of the gas transmission operators of Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine and Moldova for the Vertical Corridor.

Interview with Teodor Detchev Ph.D., associate professor at the Higher School of Security and Economics (HSSE) in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, head of the Laboratory on the Problems of the Black Sea and Caspian Region

How do you assess the level of Azerbaijani-Bulgarian relations?

The expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor, which supplies gas from the Caspian Sea region to Europe, was among the topics discussed at the Black Sea Security Conference organized by Caspian Policy Center, Trend reports.

Plans to expand the capacity of the IGB interconnector to 5 billion cubic meters per year will be of great importance to be able to transfer 10 billion cubic meters per year of LNG from the terminals in Greece and Caspian gas through the Southern Gas Corridor, reaching Moldova, Ukraine, Hungary and Slovakia.

Energy cooperation between Hungary and Azerbaijan is entering new dimension, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations of Hungary Peter Szijjarto said, Trend reports.

He stressed that there is a political will to bring gas supplies from Azerbaijan to Hungary to 1 billion cubic meters.(

Türkiye will export natural gas to Hungary, Türkiye's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar wrote about it in his official social media account, Trend reports. (https://publish.twitter.com/?query=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FaBayraktar1%2Fstatus%2F1693352279514980488&widget=Tweet ).

In Azerbaijan, the regime is liberalized in proportion to the quantities of gas that have to travel to Europe – there is an obvious correlation and it is positive. The country is valuable to Europe for five reasons. These are:

- natural gas;

- Azerbaijan's huge potential to produce green energy to be imported to Europe - Azerbaijan has the ability to produce wind energy around the clock;

Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania are preparing an agreement for gas supplies from Azerbaijan, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, said, following the meeting of the ministers of the countries of Organization of Turkic States, Trend reports via Hungarian media.

According to the minister, an agreement has been reached to launch the supply of 100 million cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan to Hungary this year.

Implementation of the project covering transfer of green energy from Azerbaijan to Romania and Hungary through Georgia and the Black Sea continues, Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said, Trend reports via the ministry.

Shahbazov made the remark within the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue conference during a roundtable dedicated to perspectives for a future energy partnership.

Four EU countries are setting up a working group for the project to boost Azerbaijani gas imports, Slovakian Ministry of Economy told Trend.

Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria have asked the European Commission to allocate funds for developing infrastructure to get additional natural gas from Azerbaijan. It is about developing the existing infrastructure, construction of new interconnectors and expanding the capacity of the existing ones.