Janaf oil terminal Omisalj
Croatia is exploiting the crisis situation and imposing a war surcharge on crude oil delivered to Hungary, but the government will not allow their greed for profit to undermine the results of the utility price cuts, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday in New York.
As the statement reads from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Minister reported on the contradictory reports regarding the capacity of the Adriatic oil pipeline, saying that Hungary could import much more natural gas and crude oil from Croatia than the neighboring country’s energy infrastructure currently allows, as its level of development lags far behind that of Hungary.
The lower level of development means that Hungary’s energy security cannot be based on Croatia. If we can only transport crude oil to Hungary via Croatia, then that pipeline cannot transport enough crude oil to ensure the uninterrupted supply of Hungary and Slovakia,”
he warned.
“Last week, on September 17, a test was conducted which proved that the Adriatic oil pipeline is simply not capable of transporting large quantities of crude oil over long distances, without interruption, at high pressure,” he added.
Péter Szijjártó therefore emphasized that basing Hungary’s supply on this would be an extremely dangerous, risky, and irresponsible move.
Unfortunately, we must also recognize that the Croatians are taking advantage of us. The Croatians are profiting from the war situation. The Croatians are still charging us a war surcharge, as since the outbreak of the war, they have raised the transit fee for the oil pipeline to five times the European benchmark,”
he pointed out.
“The Croatians are therefore exploiting the situation that there is a war and exploiting the fact that Hungary needs oil arriving via the Adriatic pipeline in certain cases, and they are charging us a war surcharge,” he continued.
“And we are not willing to expose the results of our utility cost reductions to the Croatians’ greed for profit. We are not willing to allow the Hungarian people’s energy bills to increase because of the extra profits paid to the Croatians. Therefore, the Croatians should not take out their greed for profit on us. And I say again, we will not allow the Croatians’ greed for profit to take away the results of Hungary’s utility price cuts,” he stated.
The Minister finally pointed out that in most cases in recent years, Croatia has not been fair to Hungary in the field of energy supplies.
“Just think about it, Mol won an arbitration case a few years ago, as a result of which the Croatian state currently owes Mol $270 million. This is a debt based on a court ruling, which the Croatian state has not settled to this day,” he recalled.
Fact
“JANAF Plc issued a press release on September 24 in which they reject allegations made by MOL Group about the supposed technical omissions on our part during the testing of the pipeline capacity at the section from Sisak Terminal to the Hungarian border, carried out in September 2025. JANAF particularly rejects allegations according to which the company would be unable to meet MOL Group’s two Central European refineries’ annual needs for crude oil.
MOL Group is our valued partner, with whom we have maintained a contractual relationship for over a decade, and we currently hold valid contracts for the transportation and storage of crude oil. We remain certain that JANAF has provided enough guarantees and material evidence regarding its capability of delivering sufficient quantities of crude oil to MOL Group.
JANAF understands its partners’ need to always have access to several supply routes, both for safety or other reasons; however, we firmly maintain that manipulations and obstructions do not belong in a partnership.”
Related article
Adria Capacity Test Fails, Tensions Rise Between MOL and Janaf
Technical setbacks and conflicting accounts cast doubt on the Adria pipeline’s reliability as a key oil supply route for Central Europe.Continue reading
Via MTI; Featured image: Wikimedia Commons
The post Croatia’s Oil Fee Hike Undermines Regional Energy Cooperation, Says Foreign Minister appeared first on Hungary Today.
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