Hungary Looking for New Gas Sources After Putin Scraps South Stream

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Tuesday the country will have to find alternative sources to secure its long-term gas supplies following Russia’s decision to drop the South Stream project.

"Russia had the right to make that decision and Hungary has acknowledged the move," Budapest Business Journal quoted Szijjarto as telling Hungarian news agency MTI.

Hungary, which imports most of its gas from Russia, backed South Stream despite opposition from the EU Commission and the US because it saw the project as the only way to safeguardits energy supplies, Andras Aradszki, energy affairs state secretary, told Reuters last month.

Stalled plans to build gas interconnectors within eastern Europe and the collapse of rival EU-backed Nabucco pipeline project designed to bring gas from Azerbaijan to Europe, had left Hungary with no alternative, Aradszki said, adding Hungary aimed to start building its section of South Stream next year and complete it by 2017.

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