Russian oil company stops transporting oil to Hungary

According to Reuters news agency, the Bashneft Russian oil company has stopped the transportation of oil through the Druzhba oil pipeline towards Hungary and Slovakia. This time the decision is not driven by political matters, portfolio.hu reports.

Until now, the oil company has had a quota of 525 000 tonnes of oil to be transported through the Druzhba oil pipeline from October to December. As planned, they transported 180 000 tonnes of oil in October, but the transportation has stopped since November.

The Russian oil company was exporting oil in the last four years according to the long term contract they concluded with Normeston Trading Limited company, headquartered in Belize, Central America. Traders claim that the transportation of oil may have ceased as a result of the sales strategy of the Bashneft’s new owner, Rosneft oil company, which prefers direct contracting with final consumers.

According to Reuters, the only affected final consumer is the Hungarian multinational oil and gas company MOL. Traders believe that Bashneft has canalised the oil that was originally earmarked for Hungary and Slovakia to oil ports.

Rosneft, which is controlled by the Government of Russia, has acquired the majority share (50.1 %) of Bashneft for nearly USD 5.2 billion and is now awaiting the government’s approval to acquire the rest.

translated by Gábor Hajnal

Source: http://www.portfolio.hu/