Aimed at widening options for gas flows in central Europe, make the region more resilient to potential disruptions of Russian gas supplies via Ukraine, and ease reverse-flow gas supplies to Ukraine, the interconnector pipeline has suffered a number of delays.

Officially inaugurated by the prime ministers of Hungary and Slovakia more than a year ago, and cleared by the European Commission in the middle of March this year, the EUR 150m Hungarian-Slovakian interconnector runs for 111 kilometres and was set to start commercial operation in early 2015.

It has a capacity of about 4bn cubic meters a year in the Slovak-Hungarian direction and a capacity of about 1.6bn cubic meters annually in the opposite direction.

The test run was originally scheduled to last from March 10 to April 30.

At the end of last year, Hungary’s foreign minister suggested that that as soon as the Hungarian-Slovak interconnector pipeline starts commercial operation, Hungary will once again have the opportunity to supply natural gas to Ukraine also from non-Russian sources.

Hungary renewed gas supplies to Ukraine in January after a suspension of more than three months, but early April Ukraine slashed its reverse-flow gas imports from the West through Hungary following an agreement with Russia that cut prices.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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