The information was announced by Hungarian Foreign and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto after a meeting with Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar in Budapest last week.
The statement of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the parties have established a joint venture and signed two mining rights contracts in the southern region of Hungary (Tamasi and Buzsak).
TPAO plans to invest about 6 billion forints (equivalent to 15 million euros) in this project.
MOL and TPAO have had a cooperative relationship for more than a decade, in which the two sides have jointly operated a gas field in Russia and implemented long-term cooperation programs in Azerbaijan.
Minister Peter Szijjarto highly appreciated Turkey's role in ensuring a safe energy supply to Hungary. He said that the amount of gas transported via the TurkStream pipeline is expected to reach nearly 2.5 billion cubic meters in 2025, meeting about 30% of Hungary's gas demand. He emphasized that this gas pipeline has helped strengthen Hungary's energy security, creating conditions to maintain electricity and gas price policies for households.
Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar called the deal a "milestone" in Turkey and Hungary's long-standing energy partnership.
Cooperation between MOL and TPAO is not limited to Hungary but also towards third countries, with potential projects in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
both Turkey and Hungary face similar challenges as countries dependent on energy imports, Bayraktar said, stressing the recent power outages in Europe as a reminder of the urgency of energy security.
In a separate statement, MOL said that the parties signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in October 2024 on cooperation in upstream activities in the Caspian Sea, Turkey, North Africa, the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe.
Currently, MOL is still a key force in Hungary's hydrocarences industry, accounting for 47% of domestic crude oil output and nearly 90% of gas output in 2024. The company operates about 1,300 wells across Hungary, with output last year reaching nearly 600,000 tons of crude oil and 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas.
