The Foreign Minister has highlighted that Hungary will be able to purchase Liquefied Natural Gas from Qatar, following the completion of Croatia’s LNG terminal in January 2021.
Péter Szijjártó, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the Qatar deal would radically change the security of central Europe’s gas supply.
According to MTI, the Minister said most countries in the region currently get gas from a single source, but Qatar has become the top global exporter of LNG, with more than 100 billion cubic meters of gas exported each year. Plans are to boost this to 145 billion cubic meters over the next few years.
The Minister said Qatar has expressed openness to entering into talks on delivering LNG to Hungary via Croatia. He added that gas from Qatar may well be part of Hungary’s energy mix from January 2021. “The more we can obtain gas from a diverse range of sources, the greater our energy security and the cheaper the gas is,” Minister Szijjártó said.
Minister Szijjártó said the LNG terminal in Croatia will have an annual capacity of 2.7 billion cubic meters of gas, while that of the interconnector at the Croatia-Hungary border will be 1.6 billion cubic meters, adding that this was a significant amount in light of Hungary’s annual consumption of 9.5 billion cubic meters.
The potential deal was discussed during the Minister’s official visit to the Middle Eastern country this week. Other areas of cooperation were also discussed.
Photo credit: alternativenergia.hu