All MOL Group’s activities are aimed at continuing to profit from discounted Russian oil, Croatian company JANAF said on Saturday, stressing that it is ready to respond to any complaint by MOL Group or Slovnaft before the relevant authorities. TASR writes about it based on a report from the Hina agency.
In short:
- JANAF claims that the MOL group wants to profit from discounted Russian oil
- JANAF declares full compliance with European Union rules and sanctions
- MOL and Slovnaft accuse JANAF of long-term unfair pricing practices
“We operate in full compliance with the rules of the European Union, market competition and international sanctions. We are open to any proceedings before the European Commission that objectively confirm the facts about our standard, market-oriented operations, and we remain ready for cooperation and constructive dialogue,” said the operator of the Croatian part of the Adria pipeline.
Price transparency
The company added that prices for transportation through the JANAF system are set according to the same criteria for all partners in a transparent and common process, in which partners are informed about the calculation methodology.
“MOL Group’s attempts to discredit JANAF through unacceptable comparisons with completely different pipeline systems and selective presentation of unit transportation prices are just another in a series of attempts to convince European authorities that there is no other option than to allow Hungary and Slovakia to continue to benefit from discounted Russian oil,” the company said.
JANAF claims that the MOL Group is constantly trying to put undue pressure on this Croatian company and European institutions with the sole aim of continuing to import discounted and sanctioned Russian oil, from which it usually makes high extraordinary profits.
Disagreement of MOL and Slovnaft
“The JANAF company has proven to be a reliable and safe energy partner, which, among other things, ensures continuous oil supplies to the countries of Central Europe. The MOL Group is aware of this, and recently JANAF reported the arrival of nine tankers with non-Russian oil, four of which have already arrived at the Omišalj terminal, three more are scheduled to arrive in March and two in April,” the statement reads.
MOL Group and Slovnaft recently filed a formal complaint with the European Commission’s (EC) General Directorate for Competition against price abuse by the operator of the Croatian part of the Adria pipeline.
Transit fees
The Hungarian and Slovak companies claim that JANAF has been applying unfair pricing practices for a long time, which are not supported by objective reasons. Since the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, according to MOL and Slovnaft, the fees of this Croatian company for the transportation of the raw material have almost doubled.
The transit fee in Croatia is currently more than three times higher than the payments charged by the operator of the TAL pipeline, which runs from the port of Trieste through Germany to Vienna. It is also almost double the fee that the MOL group pays for transit through the Ukrainian part of the Druzhba pipeline passing through the war zone. At the same time, it significantly exceeds the prices of European pipelines, whose technical and economic conditions, including the rate of utilization, are very similar to those of JANAF.
Testing disagreement
In addition, the Hungarian and Croatian companies are also at loggerheads over a series of Adria pipeline capacity tests that were supposed to start on Wednesday, March 11, but did not happen. JANAF withdrew from the agreement, despite the fact that the European Commission (EC) expects a professional conclusion to this long-standing dispute.
The Croatian operator said the planned capacity testing did not start as planned because the two sides did not agree on key elements of the process. According to JANAF, the MOL accepted the proposal that the tests be carried out under the supervision of the EC and with the involvement of an independent expert, but they have not yet reached an agreement on the details.
