The Hungarian energy company Mol said that it has agreed to supply Russian crude oil through the Druzhba pipeline, which passes through Ukraine.
Bloomberg writes about it.
Mol, which controls oil refineries in Hungary and Slovakia, will take over the transit of oil from Russia on the Belarus-Ukraine border from September 9.
Previously, the Russian company Lukoil was responsible for the transportation of crude oil to Hungary and Slovakia near the border with Ukraine.
Mol did not specify which company or companies will deliver Russian crude oil.
Earlier, Bloomberg wrote that Hungary and Slovakia continue to export oil from Russia, but now use the services of the Russian oil company Tatneft.
What preceded this?
Russiaʼs Lukoil has stopped supplying oil to Hungary and Slovakia due to Kyivʼs sanctions against the company, which effectively prohibit it from using the territory of Ukraine for transit. Both countries continued to receive Russian oil, using exemptions from sanctions that the EU made for them, on the condition that they quickly find alternative sources of oil. However, this did not happen.
In August, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said that Hungary had found where to supply oil after it stopped receiving it through the Lukoil oil pipeline, whose operation was blocked by Ukraine. However, he did not name the new source at the time.
At the end of the summer, Hungary held talks with Gazprom, during which it declared that it was "satisfied with Russian energy cooperation." According to Bloombergʼs calculations, in the first half of this year, as compared to the same period last year, Gazpromʼs deliveries to Hungary, in particular, increased by more than 26%. And this despite the sanctions imposed on the company.