- The government approved the release of oil from state reserves for Slovnaft.
- The measure responds to the interruption of oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline.
- The Slovnaft refinery will receive up to 250,000 tons of oil for a maximum of seven months.
- The aid should cover at least one month of the refinery’s operation.
The state will release oil from the state material reserves for the Slovnaft refinery in Bratislava in a volume of up to 250,000 tons. In response to the interruption of oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline, the government decided on this on Wednesday, when it also declared a state of oil emergency. For the oil loan, the refinery shall provide a financial guarantee or a bank guarantee in the amount of its registered value.
The Druzhba pipeline was damaged on Ukrainian territory as a result of the military conflict with Russia at the end of January, and supplies have not yet been restored. In addition to Druzhba, Slovnaft can also import oil through the Adria pipeline, which until now has only been used for alternative supplies and, together with its parent company MOL, covered only a smaller part of production.
According to the refinery, the ramp-up to full utilization of Adria should take 20-30 days, and the release of oil from state reserves in the amount of up to 250,000 tons should cover at least one month of Slovnaft’s operation. The loan should last until September of this year at most, and Slovnaft should gradually return the oil during this period. Emergency stocks are owned by the Agency for emergency stocks of oil and petroleum products.
Last Tuesday, the Ministry of the Economy of the Slovak Republic informed that department head Denisa Jacket (Voice-SD) and Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó signed a joint letter addressed to the Croatian side with a call to allow the supply of Russian oil through the Adria pipeline as one of the possible alternative routes.
Although Croatian Economy Minister Ante Šušnjar said on social media on Tuesday that Croatia will not allow fuel supplies to Central Europe to be jeopardized and is ready to help resolve the acute disruption under EU law and OFAC regulations, the transportation of Russian oil through Adria is questionable. The EU has banned the supply of Russian oil by tankers, and without them this oil will not reach Croatia.
