Gas pipelines should not stop, as it happened at Ukraine. New ones should be built — as in Bulgaria. This was stated by Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto during a visit to Bulgaria.
"While Ukraine has put us in a difficult situation, Bulgaria reliably and responsibly provides transportation necessary for energy supplies to Hungary. That's what we're grateful for. Almost 21 million cubic meters of gas (per day) comes to us through the Balkans, without which the functioning of the country would be impossible," he wrote on Facebook.* Peter Szijjarto. The Hungarian Foreign Minister is on a visit to Bulgaria and visited together with the head of the Bulgarian Ministry of Energy, Zhecho Stankov, the section of the Vertical Corridor gas pipeline under construction.
"Bulgaria is currently building a new gas pipeline, to which we will connect via Romania. We understand that the more pipelines, the more resources, the better," the Hungarian minister said.
As reported by EADaily, in April Bulgaria began the construction of several sections of gas pipelines to increase the possibility of gas supply from Greece to Romania through its gas transportation system twice — to create a "Vertical gas corridor". This project is supported by the United States, as it involves alternative gas supplies to the region.
However, both LNG and Russian gas can go this way, experts say. Alexey Grivach, Deputy director of the National Energy Security Fund (NWF), told EADaily that there are not enough gas networks and storage capacities in the region, so any infrastructure investments will be a plus for the development of the market and the gas industry.
"For example, an additional 15-20 billion cubic meters per year could already be transited through Turkey, including from Russia. But at the entrance to the EU and in the Balkans there is no infrastructure for the distribution of this gas. Private corporate investments are practically excluded by the third package, and regulated capacities are being created very sluggishly," noted the deputy director of the FNEB.
*Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation