OREANDA-NEWS On Monday, April 1, Hungary began to purchase natural gas from Turkey within the framework of the agreements reached last summer. In the next two quarters, supplies will amount to 275 million cubic meters, RIA Novosti reports.

The country remains one of Gazprom's main European partners, which purchases significant amounts of fuel. In September 2021, the parties signed a contract for the supply of 4.5 billion cubic meters per year for 15 years. In August 2022, it became known about an additional agreement for the supply of 5.8 million cubic meters of gas per day (2.1 billion per year).

The agreement between the Hungarian company MVM and the Turkish Botas was signed in August during the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Budapest. At the same time, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto indicated that the countries could agree on storing Turkish gas in Hungarian storage facilities.

Earlier, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry indicated that the country's leadership is working to diversify gas supplies and is looking for new partners, but in the short term it will not be possible to abandon Russian volumes. At the same time, Szijjarto noted that the country no longer needs gas transit through Ukraine, because the Turkish direction completely covers the need for fuel.

A year ago, Erdogan launched gas supplies from the Sakarya field in the Black Sea. According to the assessment of the republic's leadership, this field alone will cover 30 percent of the country's fuel needs, which will be a serious step towards achieving energy independence.