Hungary will ask the European Commission to extend the sanction exemption Slovak company Slovnaft – a subsidiary of Hungary’s MOL’s – currently benefits from by another year to ensure exports of refined products made from Russian crude oil arrive in Czechia, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó after meeting his Slovak counterpart Ludovic Ódor on Monday.
The current exemption from sanctions, expiring in December 2023, concerns oil refining company Slovnaft, which is in Slovakia and owned by the Hungarian MOL group. The Czech Republic is currently one of Slovnaft’s main export markets.
Szijjártó said MOL needs another year to complete investments in Slovnaft which would allow the refinery to process crude oil other than the Russian Urals type, the Czech News Agency reported.
“One more year is needed to make these investments, which is why we are asking the EU to extend by one year the exemption from sanctions that allows MOL and Slovnaft, part of the group, to export refined products made from Russian crude to the Czech Republic,” Szijjártó added.
MOL uses Russian crude supplied by the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline for its refineries in Slovakia and Hungary. Slovakia takes almost all of its oil from Russia via the Druzhba pipeline but plans to reduce the share of Russian oil this year.
Last year, non-Russian crude oil accounted for only about 5% of Slovnaft’s oil consumption. By the end of this year, that share should rise to 30 to 35%.
(Aneta Zachová | EURACTIV.cz)
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