Sanctions on Lukoil did not reduce oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia – Kyiv

Oil supplies to Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic remained at the level of previous months, despite Ukraine’s sanctions against the transit of the Russian company Lukoil.

Oleksiy Chernyshov, Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz, announced this in an interview with NV.

According to the top manager, a contract between UkrTransnafta and Russia’s Transneft for oil transit to Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic is currently in effect.

“The volume of supplies in July, by the way, remained at the level of previous months,” he said.

Chernyshov emphasized that oil refining in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia has not changed after the sanctions on Lukoil.

“They received the same amount of oil, but the structure of its owners may differ,” the Naftogaz CEO added.

On Monday, July 29, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico met with Ukrainian Ambassador Myroslav Kastran and threatened consequences if Kyiv did not resume oil transit with Russian Lukoil.

Hungary is seeking to resolve the problem with Lukoil’s transit through Ukraine to prevent stock-outs and fuel shortages, Bloomberg reported. Hungary has until September to resolve a dispute with Kyiv over the transfer of crude from a major Russian oil supplier before fuel shortages set in, according to a senior minister, the publication reported.

However, the European Union rejected Hungary and Slovakia’s request for urgent consultations in connection with Ukraine’s decision to ban oil transit from a major Russian supplier.

The EU Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis notified Hungary and Slovakia that a preliminary analysis shows that Ukraine’s sanctions on Russia’s Lukoil in June don’t impact transit operations carried out by trading firms via the Druzhba pipeline as long as Lukoil isn’t the formal owner.