Russian natural gas starts flowing into Hungary

Hungary has started receiving Russian natural gas via Ukraine on Tuesday, following the resolution of a gas conflict between Moscow and Kiev, Hungary's gas transit company FGSz said.

MOSCOW, January 20 (RIA Novosti) - Hungary has started receiving Russian natural gas via Ukraine on Tuesday, following the resolution of a gas conflict between Moscow and Kiev, Hungary's gas transit company FGSz said.

Following Sunday's talks between the two country's premiers, Russian energy giant Gazprom and Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz signed on Monday a contract on Russian gas supplies to Ukraine for 2009-2019, allowing for the restart of gas transit to Europe.

"FGSz officially announces that gas supplies from Ukraine started at 1:20 p.m. (12:20 GMT)," the company said in a statement.

Earlier on Tuesday, Slovakia, which had been without Russian gas supplies for two weeks, confirmed it was receiving natural gas from Russia via Ukraine.

Russia suspended supplies to Ukraine on January 1 after the former Soviet neighbors failed to reach an agreement on a new gas contract for 2009. A week later, Gazprom cut off gas deliveries to the European Union, saying Ukraine was stealing gas intended for EU consumers.

Around 20 European countries were affected by the dispute, with the EU calling the cut in supplies "completely unacceptable."

The European Commission said in a statement on Tuesday that Ukraine had opened all of its pipelines for the transit of Russian gas.

Europe is expected to receive 335 billion cubic meters of Russian gas on Tuesday.