Hungary, which has long relied upon the Ukraine and its Bratsvo pipeline for natural gas supplies, has recently begun to diversify its sources of gas.  To this end it has entered into negotiations with Russia, and according to Reuters, a new 15 year supply contract will be signed by the end of September, stipulating that Gazprom shall ship 4.5 bcm of natural gas to Hungary:  3.5 billion cubic meters via Serbia and 1 billion cubic meters via Austria.

Hungary has further diversified gas imports by recently opening cross-border interconnectors with most of its neighbours and securing supplies from Royal Dutch Shell, via a liquefied natural gas (LNG) port in Croatia.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said most of the shipments under the new contract will arrive via a new interconnector at the country's Serbian border that will be operational by October.

While reducing its dependency on Russian gas imports, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, since taking power in 2010, has promoted Moscow's interests within the European Union, repeatedly calling for the ending of economic sanctions imposed after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.