Hungary Takes EIB Loan for Pipeline

The Hungarian state-run development bank Magyar Fejlesztési Bank (MFB) has said today that it has secured a €75 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to finance a gas pipeline from Hungary to Slovakia.

In a statement today, the Hungarian bank said that it had signed an agreement with the EIB yesterday to enable the construction of the 115-kilometre pipeline which will run between Hungary (94 kilometres) and Slovakia (25 kilometres). 

The pipeline will be a two-way high pressure, 75 bar gas pipeline MFB said today and will be developed by Maygar Gaz Transit, in which MFB holds a 49 per cent stake, and Slovakia's Eurstream. The pipeline will have a capacity of 5 billion cubic metres a year.

The loan furthers an agreement signed in May by MVM subsidiary Maygar Gas Transit and Eurstream in which the two agreed to construct the pipeline by 2015 in a bid to cut both countries' dependence on Russian gas imports.

"The agreement reflects that MVM Group is on track in realizing its mid-term strategy including gas business diversification with the aim of increasing Hungary’s security of gas supply and decreasing its energy dependency," CEO of MVM Csaba Baji said in May. "The project is in line with the intergovernmental agreement between Hungary and Slovakia signed last year and is of  priority importance for the European Union as well being part of the North-South gas corridor."