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Slovakia and Hungary on Friday (August 2nd) rejected a European Commission proposal to replace lost Russian oil shipments with an alternative route through Croatia, saying the country was unreliable for oil transit.
EURACTIV writes about this.
Supplies of Russia's largest oil exporter, Lukoil, through Ukraine were halted in July after Ukrainian authorities banned Lukoil from using the Druzhba pipeline, which connects Russia to Eastern Europe.
Hungary and Slovakia have asked the European Commission to act as a mediator in the consultation process with Ukraine, Hungary's foreign minister said, after Kyiv added the Russian group Lukoil to the sanctions list, cutting off its supplies to both countries.
But they reject the European Commission's proposal to use the free capacities of the Adriatic JANAF pipeline in Croatia to supply both countries with oil that is not supplied from Russia.
"Croatia is simply not a reliable country for transit," said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Peter Sijarto. "Croatia increased oil transit prices five times since the beginning of the war (in Ukraine)."
"This is a politically deeply offensive statement that we did not expect to hear from the representative of the country, to whose unfriendly steps we have long been reacting with extreme restraint and moderation," said Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman.
Slovakia, whose Hungarian refinery Slovnaft already receives some of its oil through JANAF, also known as Adria, said on Friday it had received a letter from the Croatian government offering to secure supplies.
"But at what price? In what volume? No one knows this today," said Slovakia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Juraj Blanar.
Slovakia wants the European Commission to force Ukraine to fully restore flows from Russia, but, he said, it will also look for another solution if the European Commission does not act.
Following Russia's invasion in 2022, the European Union banned oil imports to its member states in an effort to wean off Russian fossil fuels, but made exceptions for Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to find alternative routes and sources of supply.
Flows from other Russian suppliers, except Lukoil, continue through Druzhba.
EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said that Ukraine has confirmed that Lukoil oil flowing through Ukraine already belongs to other entities at this stage, and therefore sanctions do not apply to it, which raises the question of the reason for the interruption in supplies.
Despite protracted negotiations over transit tariffs, Croatia's JANAF and Hungary's MOL managed to sign a one-year contract in May 2023 to transport and store 2,9 million tonnes of oil via the Adriatic Pipeline to MOL's Hungarian and Slovakian refineries.
Hungary also complained on Friday that Croatia had not invested in increasing capacity and had never confirmed the figure it cited for the maximum transit capacity of its pipeline.
In a statement, Janaf denied the allegations, saying it was continuously investing in its transportation and storage system.
The company said that together with MOL, it tested its transport capacity on the section towards Hungary and proved that it can transport 1,2 million tons of crude oil every month.
"The information that "Yanaf" has been increasing its tariffs for the past three years is completely untrue," the statement reads.
"Yanaf" is ready, both technically and organizationally, to supply Central European oil refineries with a sufficient amount of oil to operate at full capacity. Therefore, we hope that through open negotiations and cooperation we will find a satisfactory solution for the continuation of the long-term partnership," the statement reads.
