Hungary and Serbia plan to build a new pipeline to transport refined oil products between the two countries, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Friday, as a dispute over Russian oil supplies via Ukraine intensifies.
Speaking in Belgrade alongside Serbia’s energy minister Dubravka Đedović Handanović, Szijjarto said the proposed products pipeline would be separate from a planned crude oil pipeline linking the two countries.
The announcement comes after shipments through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline were halted on Jan. 27 following damage that Ukraine attributed to a Russian drone attack. Budapest and Bratislava have questioned that account.
Szijjarto accused Ukraine of “political blackmail” by failing to resume flows through Druzhba, which runs via Ukrainian territory and supplies Hungary and Slovakia – the only two European Union members still importing Russian crude under an exemption from EU sanctions.
“Ukraine is exerting political pressure and does not restart the pipeline. They want money and weapons, but we will not give them,” Szijjarto said, adding that Hungary’s goal was to stay out of the war.
Hungary’s MOL and Slovakia’s Slovnaft have released crude from strategic reserves and secured alternative cargoes, including from Saudi Arabia and Norway, to offset the disruption.
Serbia’s Đedović Handanović said construction of the Serbia-Hungary crude oil pipeline could begin in the autumn. Authorities are also considering building the products pipeline within the same project, she said.
Talks in Belgrade also covered the potential sale of Serbia’s oil company NIS to Hungary’s MOL. Đedović Handanović described negotiations as “difficult and complex,” noting that the process is being overseen by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Szijjarto said that if MOL acquires NIS, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia would become more resilient to what he called Ukrainian pressure.
Meanwhile, Croatia said Friday it could supply Hungary and Slovakia with crude via the Adria oil pipeline as an alternative route. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said the pipeline has capacity of up to 15 million tonnes per year, enough to meet the needs of both countries.
The European Commission has said enforcement of sanctions is the responsibility of member states and declined to comment on statements by private companies, but welcomed Hungary’s proposal to send a verification mission to assess damage to the Druzhba pipeline.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called for urgent repairs to the infrastructure, while acknowledging the challenges posed by ongoing attacks in Ukraine.