Croatia can ensure crude oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia, which haven’t received Russian oil for a month following damage on the Druzhba oil pipeline, the Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, has said.
“Croatia is here as a neighbor, partner and friend to ensure the energy security and smooth functioning of the economies of both Hungary and Slovakia,” Croatian state media quoted Plenkovic as saying.
Hungary and Slovakia are releasing oil from their strategic petroleum reserves after Russian crude flows via the Druzhba pipeline stopped at the end of last month.
At the end of January, Druzhba, the pipeline that carries Russian crude to refineries in Hungary and Slovakia, was damaged in what Ukraine said was a Russian drone attack.
Supplies of Russian oil to the last two remaining EU member states dependent on Russian crude flows via Druzhba have been halted since January 27.
Croatia is now in talks with Hungary, Slovakia, and the European Commission on a plan to ensure crude supply to the two EU member states that have kept ties with Russia and Putin since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Croatia’s pipeline operator JANAF has assured the market and public in recent days it has the capacity to provide non-Russian oil to meet Hungary and Slovakia’s needs.
Last week, JANAF said in response to media reports that it “considers partnership and reliability to be the Company’s most important business values and its activities contribute to the fact that crude oil supply to Central European countries – Hungary and Slovakia – remains completely unthreatened.”
“At this moment, a significant quantity of non-Russian crude oil is being transported via JANAF’s pipeline for MOL Group, while three additional tankers carrying non-Russian oil, also for MOL Group, are on their way to the Omišalj Terminal,” the company said on February 20, referring to Hungary’s energy firm MOL.
This week, JANAF said that one shipment for MOL is currently being unloaded at JANAF’s Omišalj Terminal. By early April, seven additional tankers loaded with non-Russian origin oil are expected to arrive for the same user of JANAF’s oil pipeline system, the Croatian company said.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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