Ukraine's decision to halt transit of Russian oil to Hungary, Slovakia unacceptable - official
MADRID. July 23 (Interfax) - The Hungarian authorities have criticized Kiev's decision to halt the transit of Russian oil through Ukrainian territory.
"Ukraine's decision to stop the transit of [Russian] oil from the Lukoil company through the country's territory poses a fundamental threat to the energy supply to Hungary and Slovakia," the EFE news agency quoted Hungarian government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs as saying.
The situation is "unacceptable and difficult to understand", as Ukraine seeks to join the European Union, at the same time jeopardizing these two EU member countries' energy supply, Kovacs said.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said the day before that this step "is in breach of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreements, which prohibits interrupting the transit of energy resources." Hungary and Slovakia have jointly asked the European Commission to start consultations. If this issue is not resolved, it may be referred to an arbitration court, a move that may affect the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. "The EU has three days to hold consultations," Szijjarto said.
The situation has now been stabilized with the help of "temporary solutions", but it is impossible to ensure the security of oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia without Lukoil in the long term, he said.
"We have constantly been in talks with Slovakia in order to sort out this situation. I spoke to the Ukrainian foreign minister over the phone a few days ago. He said that all kinds of deliveries via Ukraine are allowed, but it clearly does not reflect the actual situation," Szijjarto said.
As reported, Lukoil crude supplies to Slovakia were halted last week following the transit ban imposed by Kiev.
Bloomberg said that the Transpetrol agency is recording the cancellation of Russian oil deliveries to a Slovak refinery from Lukoil, which, according to the latest information, has been added to Ukraine's expanded sanctions list.
Kiev tightened sanctions on Russia's oil company Lukoil last month, thus effectively banning oil transport to Central Europe across Ukraine via the Druzhba pipeline, Bloomberg said. Lukoil is the largest supplier of oil both to Hungary and Slovakia.
Hungary had also said previously that it was not receiving oil from the Russian oil company. Slovnaft, the only oil refinery in Slovakia capable of processing around 124,000 barrels of oil a day, is owned by Hungary's MOL.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto had said earlier that he had discussed uninterrupted oil and gas deliveries from Russia with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Under a contract with MOL valid until 2025, Lukoil is supposed to deliver 4 million tonnes of oil a year to Slovakia.