MOL-leader: Hungary cannot replace Russian crude oil overnight – UPDATED
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Central Europe and Hungary are not in a position to replace Russian crude oil overnight, as doing so would cause a very serious disruption to the whole region, the chairman and CEO of Hungarian oil and gas company Mol said on Thursday.
Zsolt Hernádi told the company’s general assembly that several oil refineries in central Europe, including in Hungary and Slovakia, have been designed to process Russian crude oil. At a regional level, these refineries receive 120 million litres of Russian crude oil daily and they use this to produce diesel, petrol and other vitally important products for the economy, he said. To replace such a volume would require a considerable length of time and amount of money, he added.
Hernádi said that Mol was acting in full compliance with the European Union’s system of sanctions aimed at bringing an end to the Russian-Ukrainian war as soon as possible.
Commenting on the petrol price cap, he said it was necessary to react to the sudden increase in energy prices at the government level but temporary measures would have to be withdrawn in the medium term. They cannot be maintained for long because resources will run out, he added.
Government: Hungary’s energy supply secure
Hungary’s energy supply remains secure and gas deliveries are continuing in line with the contract with Russia, the foreign ministry state secretary for communications told public current affairs channel M1 on Thursday. Tamás Menczer said that though Russia has halted gas supplies to Bulgaria, transit deliveries were still continuing, adding that Bulgaria and Serbia’s energy ministers had confirmed as such to Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.
Because some 85 percent of Hungary’s gas supply come from Russia and 90 percent of Hungarian homes rely on gas heating, the government maintains that Hungarians cannot be made to pay the price of war, Menczer said. But Hungary is not the only country that is dependent on Russian gas, the state secretary said, citing remarks from German, Austrian, Czech, Slovak and Romanian officials that sanctions on Russian energy would hurt Europe more than they would Russia.