BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 15
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
As a regular participant of the ministerial meetings of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council, Hungary looks forward to receiving shipments of natural gas from Azerbaijan, Pál Ságvári, the Ministerial Commissioner for the International Energy Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary told Trend.
“For that to happen, Hungary already built all internal transmission system elements and we follow the developments on the Greece-Bulgaria-Romania route with great interest. Once transit countries complete the necessary infrastructure there will be no obstacle to our access to gas arriving through the SGC,” he said.
Ságvári noted that energy relations between Hungary and Azerbaijan are at an all-time high.
“Recognizing this fact, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó and Azerbaijan’s Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov created the Working Group between the Government of Hungary and the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Energy that had its first session in Budapest on 14 February 2020. We look forward to joint activities in this framework,” said the ministerial commissioner.
He pointed out that one of the concrete outcomes of the founding session of the Working Group between the Government of Hungary and the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Energy was an agreement on knowledge sharing by Hungary concerning system integration of renewable energy sources covering both technical and regulatory aspects.
“We have gathered valuable experience on how European energy markets work that was also offered to our Azerbaijani partners,” he added.
Ságvári also highlighted the significance of Hungarian MOL Group’s becoming one of the shareholders of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
“It is a matter of pride and delight to see the completion of the transaction making MOL the biggest Central European investor in Azerbaijan. Given the sizeable share of state ownership in MOL, Hungary will now benefit from being part of the “Contract of the Century”. Despite the current adverse conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic Hungary is confident in the long term success of the ACG project,” he said.
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