Hungary

Abstract

The Magyars have long drawn on their own indigenous supplies of natural gas, but Hungary itself has not been self-sufficient since 1973, when demand first outstripped local output. The first deliveries of Russian gas started two years later in 1975, through a 130 km spur to the Bratsvo, or Brotherhood, pipeline system, running through from Uzhgorod in Ukraine. After that, in 1989, the year ‘red gas’ first arrived in Hungary, demand rose exponentially from 4.8 bcm to 10.2 bcm, before falling back beneath 10 bcm/y around 1990 as industry slowed following the collapse of the Soviet Union and its control economy.