MOL: Company not informed of plan to shut down Friendship crude oil pipeline

Written by BT/MTI

Hungarian state oil and gas company MOL said on Friday that it has not been informed in any form about alleged plans to stop the operation of the Druzhba (Friendship) crude oil pipeline.

In response to press reports about Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak stating that the pipeline supplying Russian crude to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia would shut down in January, MOL said: “We would be the first one to receive information about any changes.”

“We continue to have good business relations with the Ukrainian side and supplies are uninterrupted,” the company said.

Podolyak said in an interview cited by online news website hvg.hu that by stopping flows through the pipelines and excluding Russian energy, Moscow would lose its best market.

Czech energy security envoy Vaclav Bartuska told Reuters on Friday that any potential halt in oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline through Ukraine from Russia from next year would not be a problem for the Czech Republic. He said Ukraine had also in the past warned of a potential halt, adding that “this is not the first time; this time maybe they mean it seriously — we shall see”.