Hungary To Continue Gas Supply To Balkans

Molnar said he could not predict when Russian gas supplies via Ukraine could restart despite an agreement between the two parties.

Hungary expects to meet its gas needs on Sunday mainly from domestic resources and will continue shipments started earlier this week to Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, Energy Minister Csaba Molnar said on Sunday.

Molnar said Hungary's daily gas consumption was estimated at 61-64 million cubic metres, which it expected to cover using 53 million cubic metres of reserves, 9 million cubic metres of domestic output and 4 million of imports from western Europe.

"These resources that are at our disposal for the day are sufficient to cover the planned consumption safely, therefore, we are not planning to impose restrictions," Molnar told a news conference.

He said Hungarian oil and gas firm MOL and Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas would export 4.7 million cubic metres of gas to Serbia on Sunday, 1.5 million cubic metres to Bosnia and 1 million cubic metres to Croatia via Austria.

Serbian imports of natural gas stopped earlier this week when shipments of Russian gas via a pipeline that runs through Ukraine and Hungary were cut off.

Molnar said he could not predict when Russian gas supplies via Ukraine could restart despite an agreement between the two parties on deploying international teams of monitors at pumping stations in Russia and Ukraine.

"I cannot tell when the gas will arrive, but I think nobody can at this point."