After Ukraine stopped sending Russian oil to Hungary because of unpaid transit fees, Hungary can now step in and pay the fees. According to Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft, Ukraine is demanding advance payment for transit, but payments made by Transneft have been rejected because of new European sanctions.
According to MTI news agency, Hungarian oil and gas group MOL said the situation would not cause “problems of immediate delivery” as there were enough reserves “for several weeks”. “The company is continuously working on resuming deliveries and has put a proposed solution on the table, which is to start negotiations on collection and collection,” said MOL.
According to Russian information, the Ukrainian company Ukrtransnafta completely stopped pumping oil to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline on August 4. In April, EU countries agreed to a gradual oil embargo against Russia. However, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, citing their heavy dependence on Russian supplies, largely exempted supplies via the Druzhba pipeline.
MOL acknowledged that temporary refinery outages in Austria (Schwechat) and the Czech Republic – as well as the closure of its own refinery near Budapest for an overhaul – impacted the local fuel market amid increased demand, citing an increase in of 20% in sales in the global market and a 50% increase in MOL stations recently.
“However, enough fuel in the country”
“However, there will be enough fuel in the country if everyone fills up only what they need,” MOL said. MOL will maintain the limit of 50 liters per day and will contact the National Tax and Customs Service (NAV) to investigate possible abuse of the price limit of 480 forints (1.21 euros) per liter imposed on private vehicles with license plates. applicable Hungarian. MOL began scanning license plates for customers who pay the maximum price and forwarding the information – “in full compliance with the law” – to customs with the aim of weeding out unauthorized drivers.
“It is in our common interest that there is enough fuel for everyone,” said Peter Ratatics, COO of MOL’s domestic operations, calling for “solidarity rather than panic buying.”
“We ask customers to fill up with a maximum of 50 liters: if everyone buys just what they need, there will be enough fuel in the country,” he added. (apa)