Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis responded to the request of Hungary and Slovakia regarding the suspension of oil supplies to LUKOIL through Ukraine, at the same time noting that Ukraine does not endanger the supply of oil to these countries, and suggested using the supply route through Croatia, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary Peter Szijjártó wrote in social networks
However, according to him, Croatia “is not a reliable transit country”. “It is unreliable, because since the beginning of the war, the oil transit fee has been increased five times compared to the average market values,” Sijarto said.
In addition, the necessary investments were not made in capacity expansion, and data on maximum capacity was not proven.
As reported, Kyiv last month strengthened sanctions against LUKOIL, effectively banning the transit of oil entering Central Europe through the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba oil pipeline. The company is a major supplier of raw materials both to Hungary (it provides about a third of imports into the country) and to Slovakia (40-45%).
Hungary and Slovakia jointly asked the European Commission to start the consultation process. If the issue is not resolved, it may be referred to an arbitration court, which may affect agreements between the EU and Ukraine, these countries said.
On Thursday, EC representative Balazs Uyvari stated that according to the information available to the European Commission, as well as the analysis carried out, Ukraine’s sanctions against LUKOIL will not affect transit through the Druzhba oil pipeline, if this company is not the owner of the oil.
“I can confirm that the services of the commission have reached a preliminary conclusion that urgent consultations (regarding oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia – IF-U) are not necessary, because at this stage there are no signs of immediate risks to the security of supplies of these two countries,” he said.
Uyvari reported that executive Dombrovskis discussed this issue with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. Following this exchange of views, a second letter was addressed to Hungary and Slovakia to outline the preliminary analysis and to encourage both countries to provide additional and detailed information to the European Commission.
In turn, another representative of the EC, Adalbert Janz, said: “Preliminary analysis showed that in July the volume missing from LUKOIL was replaced by other suppliers with the Druzhba pipeline, and as we reported, there is another alternative for Hungary and Slovakia with increased imports via a pipeline from Croatia that has sufficient capacity to accommodate the needs of both states.”
“This is a preliminary analysis and discussions with these countries are ongoing, (…) we have made progress on diversifying our oil supply, and Russian crude oil accounts for only 3% of all EU crude oil imports,” Yantz said.
