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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
The contract for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine is just days away from expiring, but several European countries, including Hungary, Austria and Slovakia, seek to extend critical supplies. This agreement is necessary for Central Europe since there are few replacement options.
Major Central European gas companies have signed a statement calling for the continuation of transit. These include Slovakia’s SPP, its gas network operator Eustream, Hungary’s MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas Plc and MVM Group, as well as trade associations and major industrial customers from Hungary, Austria, Italy and Slovakia, Bloomberg reports.
“We will present the declaration to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, so that she has first-hand information about the threat to energy and economic security in our region,” SPP Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Vojtech Ferencz said.
Russia’s share of Hungary’s gas imports is 47%, while Slovakia’s is almost 90%. Austria also received 97% of its gas imports from Gazprom in January 2024. Economists attribute this high dependence to infrastructure and long-term contracts. Nord Stream, Yamal and transit pipelines through Ukraine provide uninterrupted direct supplies, and long-term agreements ensure the predictability of gas supplies.
Geography is also a tangible factor in this situation. Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia are landlocked, so access to liquefied natural gas (LNG) is difficult. Any other means of supply would raise tariffs and result in discontent among the population. This means alternative supplies can only be obtained through intermediaries, which is much more expensive. For example, the price of LNG is several times higher this way for these countries.
The countries mentioned, Gazprom’s main customers in Europe, have built their energy policies around reliable supplies from Russia for many years.
Many observers believe that Austria, Hungary and Slovakia have little to rely on. Traditional gas sources for Europe—Norway, Algeria, and Azerbaijan—are unable to cover the volume of imports needed. Together, they are ready to supply up to 45 billion cubic meters a year, which would create a deficit of about 15 billion cubic meters in the markets of individual EU countries. Experts predict that these European countries could turn to the Balkan Stream pipeline. However, its capacity fully occupies the Balkan countries.
In this context, Brussels is categorical and unwilling to budge from its stubborn position. Reuters quoted a representative of the European Commission as saying that the regulator has taken an unequivocal position.
“The Commission does not support any discussions on the contract extension nor other solutions to maintain transit flows and has not been involved in any kind of negotiations on this,” the spokesperson said.
It is recalled that the current agreement on the transit of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine expires on December 31, 2024. The Kiev regime has repeatedly said they do not plan to extend the agreement. On December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed during a press conference that there would be no new contract for the transit of gas through that European country.
Europe faces a new energy crisis due to the decrease in gas reserves, the arrival of cold weather and sanctions imposed by the United States against the Russian bank Gazprombank, which handled payment transactions for importers of Russian fuel. Fuel prices have already risen by 45% during 2024.
At the same time, stocks are rapidly declining due to the cold, resulting in increased demand. According to Bloomberg, in the second quarter of 2025, during the warm season when gas typically becomes cheap enough to fill tanks, prices could be higher than in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia exported “around 50 billion cubic meters of gas in the first 11 months – despite all the statements and pressure from sanctions – because it is a very ecological product, it is in demand, and Russian gas is the most advantageous in terms of supply logistics and price.”
He said that Russia’s LNG exports will amount to 33 million tons by the end of 2024, adding that gas reserves in European storage facilities are currently 3-5% lower than in the past five years.
The EU has damaged its economy by refusing to cooperate with Moscow, as evidenced by the decline in production, bankruptcies and recession in the bloc countries. Russia has not denied any country the supply of its energy resources even when the European Union expected the country to collapse without energy revenue.
However, Brussels insists on a complete break with the Russian energy sector and the definitive rejection of energy from Russia in favor of more expensive alternative supplies, especially from the United States, and this will only hurt many European countries, particularly those in landlocked Central Europe.
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they’re forcing the world onto nuclear .it’s obvious the motivations and intentions .
right-o… as it’s so easy to convert nuclear power into fertilizers and other seed chemicals for industrial uses…. not! you have the intellectual capacity of the german foreign minister… and i mean to insult her with this comment… you should feel extremely flattered by the comparison….
help! i’ve fallen and i can’t get up!
and von der friggin lugen is quiet as a mouse. her 5 years as the head of the eu has destroyed much of the european industry and in general made eu’s citizens poorer. and she was reelected for another stint of 5 years. amazing!!
she did exaclty what she was supposed to do. europeans who have jobs and warm houses wont enlist to be soldiers against russia. those who lost everything will have no other chance but to enlist or watch their family starve.
you cannot fix stupid
well you can… with bullets, or khinzal pizza delivery… definitely not with trolling their stupidity in the comment section… nope, nothing deters the stupid comments of annon… nothing, there has never existed such a singular example of ‘doing it wrong’ on southfront with the level of blissful ignorance such as annon… to him, pooh is pee, and pee is pooh…nothing will chance his “factual-less” assertions… his ai was programmed that way…
it does its’ job of clogging up the commentary thread. an ai pest programmed by a chosen asshole.
a bullet in the bafckmof von der friggin lugen’s head would indeed fix stuoid! a suitable end to a traitor!
sounds like russ whining, crying and hoping. should have found alt markets. the reality is eu will find alt suppliers and initially price is high but somehow prices will adjust and it will become acceptable. russ will not have that market anymore. humans and markets are adaptable and govt knows this. trump is going to cut off and sanction russia a lot more until there is capitulation like it was in the 90’s. sorry for the bad news.
….. and convince yourself it’s raining
you remind me of the misguided optimist that keeps filling his dribble glass to half full with a hose until the hose goes dry. hehehe
guess you have not heard of brics or the sco? you really need to read more and not rely on blackrock media for current affairs.
peacenik grew up in the same retard camp as annon… a place were they’re sheltered from inconvenient things like; reality, truth, facts, observation, critical thinking…etc…
hopium and copium are two of the five stages of ukraine’s griefathon.
brussels, paris, and berlin are going watch their people starve and riot without cheap fertilizer seed stock from russian gas to support their massive industrial farming operations. zelensky is just the excuse the eujews needed to punish the christian populations on fukking purpose… mohammad get’s his food stamp rations… but lil billy the chav will have to join russian army if he wants a decent meal now…
why does the putin administration supply critical commodities to countries that are at war with russia?
it’s part of some intricate grand plan for russia to become masters of the universe, unfathomable to us mere mortals, or at least that’s what the other aspiring masters of the universe want you to believe.
a rope around nazi-princess von der friggin lugen’s neck the quickest and most efficient way to sort the gas-issue in central europe!
“zelensky remains stubborn”. this rhetoric has elevated to the ridiculous. both sides are using this narrative. both sides repeatedly refrain from referring to this kyiv gang for what it is, galician fascist/nato. far easier to compact the entity into one coked-up sap that periodically, more than likely, gets a gun pressed into his temple to remind him of his good luck in being so “wealthy”.