Hungarian Foreign Minister Rejects Croatian Oil Transit Proposal, Calling It "Unreliable"

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó accused Croatia of being an unreliable oil transit partner after the European Commission recommended that Budapest import oil through its southern neighbor.

This action came after Ukrainian authorities imposed sanctions on Lukoil, banning the company from using the Druzhba pipeline, which connects Russia to Eastern Europe, for supplying its customers.

Earlier this month the European Commission stalled Hungary and Slovakia’s request to press Kyiv to revoke recent sanctions against the Russian oil company Lukoil.

The Vice President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, sent an offer to Slovakia and Hungary to use the Croatian transit channel to receive the necessary oil supplies.

“Croatia is simply not a reliable country for transit," Sijarto said in response to the proposal.

"It is unreliable because the price of oil transit has been increased five times compared to the average market values ​​since the beginning of the war. It is unreliable because they have made it impossible for MOL [Hungarian oil and gas company] to use long-term transport capacity.”

“This is unreliable, because the necessary investments to increase the capacity of the line have not been made, and the given data on the maximum capacity have never been confirmed by anyone," Szijjártó added.