Hungary’s foreign minister Peter Szijjarto announced the signing of the deal last week during the Gastech exhibition and conference in Milan, Italy.
The agreement is for two billion cubic meters of natural gas for ten years, starting from 2026.
He said that the contract is Hungary’s “largest volume and longest western supply contract ever.”
He said this deal will not replace existing supply deals, such as those from Russia, but it will add a new source and diversify existing supplies.
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 the supply sources.
The 140,000-cbm FSRU LNG Croatia is currently at Türkiye’s Kuzey Star yard to receive an additional regasification module.
Following the upgrade, the Krk LNG facility will have a capacity of about 6.1 bcm per year.
