Hungary and Slovakia have lost Russian oil supplies due to Ukraine's sanctions against Lukoil .
Slovakia has stopped receiving oil from Lukoil, as Kiev blocks its pumping through the Druzhba oil pipeline through its territory, the Slovak transport operator Transpetrol said on Thursday.
Slovakia lost more than half of the oil that went to the Slovnaft refinery in the amount of 500.000 tons per month. At the same time, the plant has no other sources of raw materials except for the Druzhba pipeline built during the USSR. "Lukoil's volumes cannot be pumped, but Ukraine still passes oil from other Russian companies through Druzhba."
The day before, Hungary announced problems with supplies from Russia, which, along with Slovakia and the Czech Republic, received exceptions to the European embargo on Russian oil and continues to import it through the pipeline.
According to Reuters sources, deliveries to Hungary in July were reduced only slightly, and to the Czech Republic they continue in full, since the volume of Lukoil oil in these directions is minimal. Most likely, the company will try to replace its volumes at Druzhba with oil from companies that are not subject to Ukrainian sanctions, but this may take some time.
In total, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic buy 1.1 million tons of Russian oil through Druzhba every month, or about 250.000 barrels per day. Of these volumes, Hungary and Slovakia receive 450.000 tons per month, and the remainder - about 200.000 tons - goes to the Czech Republic.
Hungary's foreign minister Peter Szijjarto complained the tightening of Ukraine's sanctions against Lukoil as an "incomprensible and unacceptable decision", emphasizing that Hungary and Slovakia were exempted from the EU sanction regarding russian oil. He also said that supplies are secured by temporary solutions, but not medium term.
At a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier in the week, Szijjártó argued the country had begun talks with Moscow to find alternative supplies of russian oil.
Source
@freerussia_report
