(Bloomberg) -- A Hungarian oil trader will handle the bulk of Russian flows to Slovakia after parent company Mol Nyrt. struck a deal with transit country Ukraine.
Moltrade-Mineralimpex Zrt is set to bring at least 300,000 tons of Russian crude to Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline in September, a person with knowledge of the plan said. That’s more than half of Russia’s estimated shipments to the country for the month.
While most of Europe cut Russian oil purchases after Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Slovakia and Hungary remained customers. When Kyiv sanctioned Lukoil PJSC in June, the two nations bought more from smaller Russian producers as a temporary arrangement. With Mol now dominating the trade and taking charge of transit across Ukraine, it appears a more permanent solution has been found.
Russia’s total September shipments to Slovakia were earmarked at about 510,000 tons as of last Friday, but final volumes may be higher, the person said, asking not to be identified as the trade isn’t public. Russian deliveries to Hungary were set at about 337,000 tons as of Friday, with producers including Tatneft PJSC and Russneft PJSC among the suppliers, the person said.
Ukraine has no issues with transiting oil owned by a Mol unit, a spokeswoman for state-run energy company Naftogaz said.
Mol didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Lukoil didn’t comment on any potential resumption of its own Druzhba flows or supplies to central Europe via Moltrade-Mineralimpex.
Mol this month reached an agreement with Kyiv to shift the point of sale for Russian crude to the Belarus-Ukraine border, which meant the Hungarian firm took responsibility for shipment across Ukraine.
Monthly volumes allotted to both Slovakia and Hungary are in line with supplies earlier this year, historic data show.
Tatneft and Russneft didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Druzhba supplies.
--With assistance from Daniel Hornak, Veronika Gulyas, Marton Kasnyik and Daryna Krasnolutska.
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