Orbán said that the European Union has set autumn 2027 as the deadline for the gradual phaseout of Russian natural gas. To switch to non-Russian oil, the Hungarian oil and gas company MOL must modernize its refineries so they can operate with different feedstock.
The EU has already decided to ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) from January 1, 2027, and pipeline gas from September 30 of the same year. At the same time, the bloc’s rules already prohibit gas purchases under short-term contracts.
In September, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar demanded compensation from the EU for giving up Russian gas and oil. Earlier, the country’s authorities had considered switching to gas supplies from Turkmenistan and signed a contract with France’s Engie to import 4 billion cubic meters of LNG from 2028 to 2038.
Russian gas is currently reaching Europe through the only operating pipeline — TurkStream. Last year, Gazprom’s supplies to the European market fell to 18 billion cubic meters, the lowest level since 1973, and compared with 2024, export volumes were down 44% and more than 10 times below prewar peaks.
The country’s former foreign minister Péter Szijjártó said that Hungary received a record 7.8 billion cubic meters of Russian gas in 2025. In January–October 2026, the monetary value of supplies to the country fell by 10% to 1.71 billion euros.
Besides Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, and Slovakia continue to buy Russian pipeline gas in the EU. According to sources cited by the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, the United States proposed to Russia the idea of selling natural gas to Europe through an American intermediary, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the plan cannot yet be implemented.
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