European Commission Vice President Guenther Oettinger said the suspension of Hungary’s gas deliveries to Ukraine was not a “blockade”, speaking after a round of Russian-Ukrainian talks in Berlin on Friday.
Hungarian pipeline operator FGSZ suspended reverse gas flows to Ukraine on Thursday in order to top up domestic reserves.
“The Hungarians told Ukraine a few hours ago that reverse flow gas deliveries would not be technically possible until the end of the month,” Oettinger said.
“Member states want to fill up their own reserves, they want to ensure their own security of supply,” he said.
“I think this is not about a blockade,” he added.
Earlier on Friday, a European Commission spokesperson suggested that the EC expects Hungary to facilitate reverse gas flow to Ukraine. Helen Kearns said the Commission’s message on the issue was “very clear”.
“We expect all member states to facilitate reverse flows as agreed by the European Council in the interest of shared energy security,” she said.
“There is nothing preventing EU companies to dispose freely of gas they have purchased from Gazprom, and this includes selling this gas to customers both within the EU as well as to third countries such as Ukraine,” she added.
In a radio interview broadcast early Friday, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that the filling of Hungary’s gas stores would be accelerated, noting an agreement with large-scale deliveries from Gazprom had been reached.
Orban said Hungary had to be prepared for the possibility of a shutdown of the pipeline on its border with Ukraine through which it gets deliveries of Russian gas.
Hungary’s gas stores contained 3.697 billion cubic metres on September 24, the state-owned Hungarian Electricity Works (MVM) said on Friday. Levels are up about 30 percent over last year’s highest point, MVM said.
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