Hungary Signed A Contract To Buy US LNG

For five years.

The Hungarian state-owned energy company MVM has signed a five-year contract with the US Chevron to import 2 billion cubic meters of LNG. This was announced by Hungarian Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Minister Peter Szijjártó, stressing that this is the first agreement in the country's history to supply American gas in such a volume.

"The American company will supply Hungary with 400 million cubic meters of LNG annually for five years. This means that over the next five years, a total of 2 billion cubic meters of American-made LNG will be added to Hungary's energy supply," he explained at the press conference.

At the moment, most of the gas consumed by Hungary comes from Russia. As Interfax notes, Budapest purchases about 8 billion cubic meters of Russian gas a year, the supplies are made through the Turkish Stream pipeline.

The agreement with Chevron was concluded against the backdrop of the continuing decline in the share of Russian gas in European imports. Before the outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine, Russia provided about 45% of gas supplies to the EU, but by 2024 that figure had fallen to 19%. According to the European Commission's plans, by the end of 2025, the share of Russian gas should be reduced to 13%.

On December 3, the EU Council approved a plan to phase out the purchase of Russian natural gas. The document envisages a complete ban on imports of Russian LNG from the end of 2026, and pipeline gas - from the fall of 2027. The EU countries are also obliged to prepare national plans for diversification of supplies. The EU Council statement stressed that these measures are a key part of the REPowerEU program aimed at eliminating dependence on Russian energy sources after "Russia turned gas supplies into a weapon."

Hungary is also looking for other sources of gas in parallel. In early October, Budapest announced its intention to start buying fuel from Turkmenistan. Earlier, the country signed long-term LNG supply contracts with France's Engie - 400 million cubic meters a year from 2028 to 2038, and with Britain's Shell - 200 million cubic meters annually for ten years from 2026.

You can support the website Charter97.org

MULTI-CURRENCY ACCOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE:

Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims

You can contact us by the e-mail charter97@gmail.com