BUDAPEST, July 3. /TASS/. Hungary has requested that the European Union extend the one year exception from anti-Russian sanctions for its energy company MOL and permit the continuation of its trading in petroleum products of Russian origin, Hungary’s foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said on Monday at a joint press conference with his Slovak counterpart Miroslav Wlachovsky.
An important exception is due to expire at the end of the year, making it possible for the Slovakia-based Slovnaft oil company, a member of the MOL Group, to sell petroleum products from the Russian feedstock in the Czech Republic, Szijjarrto said. The company "invested hundreds of millions of euro" to make its refinery in Bratislava capable of refining oil from other sources but this effort will take one more year. "We therefore request that the European Union extend the exemption from sanctions for one year," the minister said, streamed by the M1 TV channel.
Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic continue receiving Russian oil over the southern branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline not affected by sanctions but are concurrently looking for other sources and routes of supplies. Croatia at the same time has significantly increased the fee for oil transit via the Adriatic pipeline, which acts as an alternative to the Druzhba, the minister said. Tariffs set by Croatia are approximately four times above what the market would dictate, Szijjarto noted. It makes diversification and oil supplies to plants in Hungary and Slovakia more difficult, the minister stressed. "It is unjust when somebody takes advantage of the military situation, especially when the security of energy supplies to other countries is at stake," he stressed.