Croatia and Hungary quarreled over alternative oil

Croatia is not a reliable transit country. Such a conversation with the Vice-president of the European Commission was announced by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. His statement caused outrage in Croatia, which had previously offered Budapest to transport alternative oil through its territory instead of Russian.

A few days ago, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced a conversation with Vice-President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis about oil supplies through Ukraine. According to Budapest, Brussels should defend the interests of Hungary and Slovakia, not Ukraine, which imposed sanctions on Lukoil, which led to the suspension of the company's oil supplies to both countries.

Szijjarto said that one-third of imports to Hungary and almost 45% to Slovakia. Hungarian MOL buys about 4 million tons per year from Lukoil at two refineries in both countries.

So far, a temporary solution has been found, but it will be valid until September, they said in Budapest.

Croatia in response offered Hungary to use its JANAF oil pipeline. However, as Szijjarto himself wrote, he told the vice-president of the European Commission that Croatia is not a reliable transit country.

"Because after the start of the war, the Croats raised transportation tariffs many times and did it above the European average," the Hungarian minister wrote. He added that Croatia at the same time does not agree to long—term contracts and, in general, how much oil can be supplied through the pipeline.

The post of the Hungarian Foreign Minister in one of the social networks caused a storm of indignation in Croatia.

"We were unpleasantly surprised by the statement of Minister Peter Szijjart, in which he described Croatia as an unreliable transit country. Such and similar statements have no factual basis. These are completely incorrect and hasty statements," Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman replied on the social network X.

He believes that the Janaf pipeline is a reliable route and referred to the statement of the operating company.

"In February 2023, together with representatives of the MOL Group, we tested the capacity of the pipeline in the section up to the border with Hungary and found that 1.2 million tons of crude oil per month could be transported through it. In this way, JANAF can fully meet the crude oil needs of the MOL Group's refineries Bratislava and Budapest," JANAF said. They claim that they are ready for long-term contracts, and refer to the calculation method on which the price of transportation depends.

The conflict between Hungary and Croatia has become only one of the stages in the history of sanctions against Lukoil in Ukraine. Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal said that the lifting of sanctions against the Russian company is not a matter of discussion, and Kiev's position is supported by Brussels.

At the same time, the European Commission refused to start urgent consultations with Ukraine, saying that more time is needed to study the situation. Brussels said that Ukraine's sanctions do not threaten the energy security of Slovakia and Hungary and suggested using the Croatian route. Hungary and Slovakia has received such letters from the European Commission.

Peter Szijjarto stated that the letter from Brussels and a letter from Croatia to Brussels advertising the pipeline speak of coordinated actions from Brussels. Earlier, the minister said that the authors of the sanctions are not sitting in Kiev.