Druzhba Outage Spurs EU Complaint Over Russian Crude Transit via Croatia Pipeline
MOL has filed a complaint with EU antitrust regulators accusing Croatia’s pipeline operator JANAF of restricting transit of Russian crude, escalating a dispute as the Druzhba pipeline outage forces Hungary and Slovakia to seek alternative supply routes.
(Reuters) — Hungarian oil company MOL and its Slovak subsidiary Slovnaft have reported Croatian oil pipeline operator JANAF to the EU competition watchdog over its refusal to allow the transit of Russian seaborne oil imports, they said on March 4.
The Hungarian oil and gas group has grappled since the end of January with an outage of Russian crude deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline transiting Ukraine, and has had to rely more on the Adriatic pipeline from Croatia.
Hungary and Slovakia have been given exemptions to EU restrictions on Russian oil to give them time to diversify supplies. MOL has said that under EU sanctions the countries can source Russian crude via maritime routes if the Druzhba is inoperable.
Croatia has expressed willingness to help, it has baulked at allowing Russian crude to pass through the JANAF-operated pipeline.
MOL said on March 4 it and refiner Slovnaft had reported JANAF to the European Commission's antitrust watchdog on charges of abuse of a monopoly position.
"Since the shutdown of the Druzhba pipeline, MOL Group has repeatedly asked JANAF to confirm that it would accept a seaborne shipment of Russian origin that was imported legally under EU and U.S. sanction rules," MOL said in a statement.
"JANAF has used its control over the essential infrastructure to restrict access. This further exacerbates the supply uncertainty which is already acute due to the current wartime conflicts."
JANAF did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The company, in an earlier statement on March 4, denied MOL's allegations that it has engaged in unfair pricing and raised risks to supply security.
On March 4, prior to MOL's announcement, JANAF said: "JANAF’s role in ensuring stable supply to Hungary and Slovakia has also been confirmed in recent events, when eight tankers of non-Russian oil were accepted to preserve continuity of deliveries."
The Druzhba pipeline outage - caused by what Ukraine said was a Russian attack - has also sparked a political dispute between the Hungarian and Slovak governments, which have blamed Ukraine for not restoring flows quickly for political reasons. Kyiv has said repairs will take time.