“Croatia has begun constructing its liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal, which will be completed by January 2021, meaning that from that point in time the physical opportunity will exist for Hungary to purchase liquid natural gas from Qatar”, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Szijjártó.

While the opportunity to transport gas to Hungary from Croatia will already be available from the end of this year, the cooperation with Qatar will fundamentally transform the security of Central Europe’s gas supply.

“These countries can currently only acquire natural gas from a single source, but Qatar has become the world’s number one exporter of liquid natural gas, exporting over 100 billion cubic metres each year, and the country plans to increase its LNG exports to 145 billion cubic metres in the upcoming years”, the Minister added.

“Qatar has expressed its clear openness to beginning negotiations with Hungary on gas shipments to Hungary via Croatia,” Mr Szijjártó underlined. “Qatari gas could also appear on the Hungarian market from 2021, contributing to the security of Hungary’s natural gas supply and pushing prices even lower. The more sources we can acquire gas from, the greater our security, and the cheaper we can procure natural gas.”

The annual capacity of the Croatian LNG terminal will by 2.7 billion cubic metres, while the capacity of the interconnector established on the Croatian-Hungarian border is 1.6 billion cubic metres, which is a significant amount in comparison to Hungary’s annual consumption of 9.5 billion cubic metres.

Barbara Dorić, Managing Director of LNG Croatia, will be one of the speakers at the Budapest LNG Summit.