BUDAPEST, Oct 3 – Novosti. The Hungarian company MVM said it had concluded an agreement with Gazprom to defer payment for gas due to sharp fluctuations in prices, Index.hu reports .
“Due to extreme price fluctuations, MVM has entered into an agreement with Gazprom to defer gas payments in order to optimize financing for the coming winter period,” Index.hu quoted the company as saying.
It is noted that such a measure is aimed at “mitigating the impact of prices on the world market”, and “the inclusion in the contract of the possibility of deferred payment increases the financial flexibility of the MVM group and the reliability of liquidity.”
The energy company also said it intends to “transform and improve natural gas storage capacity to use it more efficiently.”
In July, the Hungarian government declared a state of emergency in the energy sector, which includes a package of seven measures: increasing the country’s gas production from 1.5 to 2 billion cubic meters, finding more than 700 million cubic meters of additional gas to fill storage facilities, a ban on the export of energy and firewood, an increase in coal production, an acceleration in the restart of blocks of the Matra coal-fired power plant, an extension of the life of the Paks nuclear power plant and a reduction in the preferential program of utility bills.
Szijjarto visited Moscow a week after the introduction of the state of emergency , where he held talks with Lavrov, at which the issue of supplying additional volumes of Russian gas to the Hungarian market was discussed. According to Lavrov’s results, Hungary’s request will be immediately considered. In mid-August, Gazprom began delivering gas in excess of the established contracts. Later, Szijjarto announced that an agreement had been signed with Gazprom, according to which, from September 1, an additional 5.8 million cubic meters of gas would be supplied to the country daily through the Turkish Stream and Serbia .
