Slovenia and Hungary have signed a bilateral political memorandum on cooperation in natural gas supply, with the relevant ministries on both sides pledging to facilitate building a gas pipeline linking the two countries.

The memorandum was signed in Budapest on 4 October by Slovenian Minister of the Environment, Climate and Energy Bojan Kumer and Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto.

The document states that the two ministries will do everything in their power to enable the countries' gas transmission system operators to build a gas pipeline with associated infrastructure to link the two countries.

The two-way capacity is planned at 50,000 cubic metres of gas per hour, which means 0.44 billion cubic metres per year, with the planned gas pressure at the point of connection being 45 bar.

The ministries will strive for the governments of Slovenia and Hungary to conclude an agreement on the solidarity supply of gas as soon as possible, or when the point of connection is established between the national gas pipeline systems.

They will also encourage further cooperation between the gas transmission network operators of the two countries, the Slovenian ministry said.

Back in August, the ministry said the Slovenian operator Plinovodi and Hungary's FGSZ had agreed that sections of the gas pipeline from Tornyiszentmiklos on the border with Slovenia to Nagykanizse and a border measuring station should be built first.

The section would be built for two capacity levels (25,000 and 50,000 m3 of gas per hour) and for both directions of flow.

Slovenia will have to build the entire 75-kilometre gas pipeline connection from Kidričevo to Pince and an additional compressor unit in Kidričevo to ensure two-way capacity. The cost of the investment on the Slovenian side is estimated at €121 million.

The memorandum was signed after the countries' prime ministers, Robert Golob and Viktor Orban, discussed the construction of the pipeline when they attended a ceremony marking the completion of a high-voltage power line linking the two national grids in December 2022.

At the time, Golob assessed that the countries could implement the project or come very close to implementing it by the end of this government's term, that is by the first half of 2026.

"Such a connection would enable Hungary to get rid of dependence on Russian gas in the mid-term and find an independent source that would be supplied through Italy," Golob said.