Construction of a Diesel Pipeline: Budapest and Belgrade Play Their Trump Card Against Kyiv

Dubravka Đedović, Serbian Minister of Energy, with Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Not only a new oil pipeline, but also a new diesel pipeline will be built between Hungary and Serbia, and the Serbian oil company NIS will deliver around 25,000 tons of diesel fuel to Hungary in March, Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Péter Szijjártó announced on Friday in Belgrade.

The minister recalled that Hungary and Serbia will build a new oil pipeline and reiterated that preparations for construction will be accelerated. “In Hungary, we have completed the detailed technical preliminary studies. In Serbia, the tender for the public procurement procedure has already been published, so it is quite realistic that a new oil pipeline will connect Serbia and Hungary by the end of next year,” he continued.

Péter Szijjártó emphasized that the construction of the oil pipeline will take place in two stages: “We are building between Százhalombatta and the Hungarian-Serbian border, then we will increase the capacity of the Hungarian section of the Druzhba oil pipeline, and of course the Serbs will build their own section.”

The manager then announced that it had now been decided to go even further. “We are prepared to build another pipeline in addition to the oil pipeline.

This is an oil product pipeline that will enable us to transport the semi-finished oil products required for fuels, gasoline, and diesel as quickly as possible between the two countries.

This will increase the security of supply of fuel, diesel, and gasoline in both Hungary and Serbia,” he added.

“As a result, the oil, gasoline, and diesel markets of the three landlocked countries of Slovakia, Hungary, and Serbia will function in a coordinated manner, making us much more resilient to blackmail, as in the case of Ukraine,” Péter Szijjártó emphasized.

The minister pointed out that difficult situations reveal who you can count on. “When our Serbian friends found themselves in a difficult situation due to the sanctions against NIS, MOL more than doubled its fuel exports to Serbia so that there would be no supply problems here. Now NIS has announced that from March, in the next few days, it is ready to deliver 25,000 tons of diesel fuel to Hungary in order to improve security of supply in Hungary and jointly thwart Ukraine’s goal of causing an oil supply crisis in Hungary and interfering in the Hungarian parliamentary elections,” he explained.

The Ukrainians must immediately begin transporting oil via the Druzhba pipeline, as transport by sea will become much more unpredictable than before,

the chief diplomat made clear in reference to the war in the Middle East on the Kossuth radio station’s Sunday magazine program.

In his assessment, “the situation is currently very dangerous” as the conflict in the Middle East appears to be escalating. The Middle East plays a key role in global energy supplies, as one-third of the world’s oil trade, including the oil trade of Kuwait, Qatar, and Iran, 90% of Saudi Arabia’s oil trade, two-thirds of the United Arab Emirates’ oil trade, and 20% of the world’s liquefied natural gas trade is conducted via the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure is currently being discussed in the news.

Via MTI; Featured image: MTI/KKM

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