BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Crude oil shipments via the Druzhba pipeline from Russia to Hungary could resume on Thursday in test mode at lower volumes, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a post on X on Wednesday.
Hungary and Slovakia said on Friday that oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline could be suspended for at least five days after Ukraine’s latest attack on Russian energy infrastructure.
“Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin informed me that after intensive work a temporary solution was found, so oil deliveries to Hungary can resume tomorrow in test mode at lower volumes,” Szijjarto wrote on X.
Earlier on Wednesday, Zsolt Hernadi, the CEO of Hungarian oil company MOL, said in an interview on mandiner.hu that his company was able to supply its refineries from operational reserves, but may have to fall back on strategic reserves.
If MOL had to increase imports via an Adriatic pipeline, it would still import Russian oil because Hungary and Slovakia were granted an exemption from sanctions, Hernadi said.
He added that he was not sure that MOL would be able to import sufficient volumes of crude via the Adriatic pipeline to run both of its refineries at full capacity if shipments via Druzhba were halted entirely.
If Druzhba oil flows do not resume by September 1, Slovakia will need to tap its strategic reserves and its refinery will not be allowed to export, Hernadi said, cutting Hungary’s fuel imports by 20% while also affecting Ukraine.
“One seventh of Ukraine’s diesel needs are supplied by the refinery in Slovakia through Hungary … and this will immediately stop,” Hernadi said.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves. Editing by David Goodman and Mark Potter)
