Hungary could import gas from Azerbaijan from 2023

Budapest, February 17 - Neftegaz.RU. Péter Szijjártó, the foreign affairs and trade minister, said Hungary could start importing natural gas from Azerbaijan from 2023 on, Hungary Today reported..

Addressing a press conference after a meeting of the Hungary-Azerbaijan mixed economic committee, Szijjártó said the annual 1-2 billion m3 of gas Hungary would import from Azerbaijan would greatly boost the security of the country’s gas supply.

He said Hungary’s purchase of Azeri gas had been made possible by the near completion of the southern gas corridor and Azerbaijan’s increase of its gas output which now exceeds 45 billion m3 a year.

Azerbaijan places great emphasis on increasing its gas delivery capacity which is set to exceed 30 billion m3 a year, Szijjártó said.

He highlighted an agreement between Hungarian oil and gas company MOL and the US company Chevron which resulted in MOL acquiring a 9.5 % stake in the largest offshore Azeri oil field which also meant a nearly 9 % stake in the largest oil pipeline of Azerbaijan and the Caucasus.

Szijjártó said this had been the largest Hungarian investment in the Caucasus.