Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday (7 September) that Hungary has reached a “political agreement” on potential gas deliveries from a new liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal under construction in Gdańsk, Poland.
Following talks with his Polish counterpart Anna Moskwa at the Economic Forum in Karpacz, Minister Szijjártó said the entry of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL onto the Polish market and Polish ORLEN’s presence in Hungary provides a “sound basis” for energy cooperation between the two countries.
Hungary and Poland intend to expand their cooperation from fuel trade to gas purchases, Minister Szijjártó said. The Minister noted the existing interconnectors between Poland and Slovakia and between Slovakia and Hungary.
In August, ORLEN placed an order covering 100 per cent of regasification services (6.1 billion cubic metres – bcm) at the FSRU (LNG) terminal in Gdańsk, which is expected to be completed by 2027-2028.
The terminal’s operator GAZ-SYSTEM is undertaking a binding Open Season procedure to confirm interest in expanding the terminal’s current regasification capacity, which is open for regasification submissions until 29 September.
Hungarian state-owned energy company MVM has signalled its intent to contract capacity from the terminal, Minister Szijjártó noted.
Should the Open Season procedure yield strong results, GAZ-SYSTEM could develop a second FSRU unit (FSRU 2) with a potential regasification capacity of 4.5 bcm.
According to the Hungarian minister, his Polish counterpart Anna Moskwa reiterated that Poland would provide political support to expand energy cooperation between the two countries for gas deliveries.
“There are many questions to be clarified in the coming weeks regarding prices, delivery conditions, and technical details, but the main point is that there is a willingness to establish a Northern transportation route for Hungary’s natural gas supply for the first time,” Minister Szijjártó emphasised.
The Hungarian Minister noted that while Hungary would be keen to receive gas from new sources such as Azerbaijan, Turkey and Qatar, the capacity of the Southeast European gas infrastructure is not sufficient to bring enough volumes to the region. “We hope that this will change in the future,” he underlined.
