Antic: Gas storage in Hungary agreed

BUDAPEST - Hungary is willing to help Serbia secure the energy it needs and store natural gas for it, Serbia's Energy Minister Aleksandar Antic said on Tuesday.

"All the gas storage facilities Hungary is not using at the moment are available to us. We have been offered to store there the gas that we need, and we have received promises that Hungary will not attempt to earn a songle euro on Serbia's trouble," Antic said after a meeting with Hungary's Minister of National Development Miklos Sesztak.

There are two options, one for Gazprom to store some gas in Hungary for the needs of the region and Serbia would then get some of that gas, Antic pointed out.

The other possibility is for Serbia to store some 150 million cubic metres of gas in Hungary based on a long-term contract with Gazprom, the minister stated.

"Those would not be nre quantities, but those already agreed, which we would then call for earlier. The government has yet to discuss the ultimate decision," he noted, stressing that the decision had to be made within a resonable length of time.

Once the gas starts coming out of the storage facility, it cannot be pumped back in, he explained.

September is the month in which the decision should be made, and the price will be free of additional taxes, he stated.

The important thing is that Hungary has promised not to delay deliveries to Serbia in case of a gas crisis, and that all the gas in transit and storage that belongs to Serbia will be delivered, Antic said.

Photo Tanjug, T.Valic