The foreign minister has underlined how Hungary supports the diversification of European energy supply and has made headway in this direction by increasing oil imports from Kazakhstan, which now cover 16 percent of its total consumption. During a joint press conference with Kazakh counterpart Mukhtar Tileuberdi, Péter Szijjártó said that this is still supplied via Russia and could be subject to sanctions. Meanwhile, he said oil and gas company MOL was the technical manager of a Kazakh-Chinese-Hungarian consortium that plans extraction from a big gas field in Kazakhstan pending Kazakh government approval. Extraction could start next year, he added. Minister Szijjártó praised Kazakhstan for combatting terrorism and ensuring stability in the region neighboring Afghanistan by preventing the spread of extremist ideologies and by taking action against migration and smuggling.
Photo credit: Facebook/Szijjártó Péter