Hungary signs five-year deal to import American LNG

Hungary has concluded a five-year agreement to purchase American liquefied natural gas (LNG), securing supplies of 0.4 billion cubic meters annually.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó announced the deal in a post on the social media platform X.

“Today, we have reached an important milestone in American-Hungarian energy cooperation by signing a contract for 400 million cubic metres of LNG a year. This means that over the next five years, two billion cubic metres 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 wrote.

Hungary currently imports around 8 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Russia via the TurkStream gas pipeline.

In November, Budapest said the United States had granted Hungary an unlimited exemption from sanctions related to the purchase of Russian oil and gas.

Earlier in December, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament reached a preliminary agreement on regulations aimed at gradually phasing out imports of Russian natural gas by 2027 under the REPowerEU plan. Under the proposed rules, for short-term contracts signed before June 17, 2025, the ban on Russian gas imports into the EU would take effect in April 2026 for LNG and in June 2026 for pipeline gas.

By Tamilla Hasanova