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Austria, Hungary insist they will not replace Russian gas

Photo captions
The gas receiving station of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline system in Lubmin, Germany on March 1, 2022. Photo: AFP/VNA

“Replacing cheap Russian gas with expensive US liquefied natural gas (LNG) is an absurd proposition,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Kossuth radio on April 1.

“It’s not like we’re going to have to put on more sweaters at night and turn down the heating a bit or pay a few more silver coins for gas. The fact is that without the source of energy from Russia, there is no gas in Hungary,” the leader was quoted as saying by Sputnik radio.

Prime Minister Orban said 85% of the country’s gas and 64% of its oil imports from Russia. Hungarry’s geographical location also limits the country’s ability to diversify its energy supplies.

Agreeing with Prime Minister Orban’s concerns, Austrian energy group OMV CEO Alfred Stern said the country would not switch to LNG purchases either.

“Abandoning Russian gas is impossible unless we are prepared to live with the enormous consequences of such a step. Some countries can do that. However, Austria could not do so. As a landlocked country, we have no access to LNG. Any diversification would mean investing in infrastructure to access more expensive gas. The removal of Russian gas will come at a cost, and this we are very aware of,” Stern told Die Presse on April 1.

In the neighboring country, the German government has activated an emergency plan to deal with disruptions in energy supplies from Russia.

Martin Brudermuller, CEO of German chemical giant BASF, described Berlin’s plan to boycott Russian gas as an “irresponsible experiment” and emphasized that Germany had underestimated the risks from walk like that. He thinks that being completely cut off from Russian gas could lead to the worst crisis for the German economy since the end of World War II.

On March 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had signed a decree requiring foreign buyers to pay in rubles to buy Russian gas from April 1, and contracts will be temporarily suspended if the parties This payment is not made.

In their response, Germany and France rejected Russia’s demand that European nations pay for gas in rubles, arguing this was a breach of contract. Europe is a region that imports about 40% of its gas from Russia and pays mainly in euros.

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