Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, announced the signing of the deal in a social media post on Tuesday.
“We have reached an important milestone in American-Hungarian energy cooperation by signing a contract for 400 million cubic metres of LNG a year,” he said.
Szijjarto said this means that over the next five years, two bcm of American LNG will arrive in Hungary.
“We are interested in purchasing energy from as many sources and via as many routes as possible, ensuring the lowest prices,” he said.
Szijjarto did not say that Chevron and MVM signed the deals, but several local media reports and images show that the deal was signed by Chevron and MVM.
LNG deals
Before this deal, French energy firm Engie signed a deal with Hungarian gas trader MVM CEEnergy to supply the latter with LNG for 10 years.
Szijjarto said this is Hungary’s “longest-term LNG contract.”
Under the deal, Hungary will buy 4 bcm of gas over 10 years from 2028.
In September, UK-based LNG giant Shell also signed a natural gas supply deal with MVM CEEnergy.
This agreement is for two billion cubic meters of natural gas for ten years, starting from 2026.
In 2020, Shell signed a supply deal with Hungary to supply the nation with LNG via the Croatian Krk FSRU-based LNG import terminal.
Under the deal, Hungary buys 250 million cubic metres of gas equivalent per annum for a period of six years.
This was the first time for Hungary to enter a long-term deal with a Western energy company.
The country has previously only imported Russian pipeline gas under long-term deals with Gazprom and its export arm.
MVM CEEnergy Croatia is one of the largest users of the Croatian FSRU.
The firm imports natural gas through the Hungary-Croatia interconnector and the Slovenia-Croatia interconnector, ensuring diversification of supply sources.
