BUDAPEST, May 19. /TASS/. A complete rejection of Russian oil will cost the Hungarian company MOL $500-600 million a year, the company’s CEO Zsolt Hernadi said commenting on the plan of the European Commission to force all EU countries to stop supplying energy resources from Russia by the end of 2027.
He recalled that Hungary still receives oil and gas from Russia in transit through Ukraine via the southern branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline and "does not have oil pipelines properly connected to any European pipeline network."
In addition, MOL's plants in Szazhalombatta and Bratislava are technologically adjusted to process mainly Russian grades of oil.
"If we stop the supply of Russian oil, this will increase the country's costs by about $500-600 million per year," Hernadi said on the ATV channel. He warned that this will inevitably reduce the refinery's capacity and significantly reduce their profitability.
"If we start reducing the capacity utilization of the oil refinery by 10% or 20%, this will immediately lead to losses," the head of the company noted.
According to him, "at present there is no guarantee that it will be possible to operate the plants in Hungary and Slovakia at full capacity" without Russian oil.