Szijjarto: Hungary oil supplies ensured through ‘temporary solutions’
Answering questions at a press conference, Peter Szijjarto, however, said that the facilities applied “will not work in the medium term”, adding that it was necessary to find a quick solution.
Szijjarto noted that Hungary and Slovakia had been exempted from a European Union sanction banning the use of the Druzhba pipeline which supplies oil from Russia to the region.
“So far … a correct energy cooperation has worked” between Hungary and Ukraine, Szijjarto said, adding that “Hungary has helped Ukraine many times and in many ways to ensure the security of their energy supplies.” “Reports about Ukraine’s changing their regulations under which shipments by Russia’s Lukoil cannot transit Ukraine to Hungary came out of the blue,” the foreign ministry quoted Szijjarto as saying in a statement.
Lukoil supplies one half of the oil imported from the east by pipeline, the statement said, adding that Hungary and Slovakia purchased an annual two million tonnes of crude oil from the Russian company.
“The Ukrainian decision will seriously impact the security of oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia in the long term,” Szijjarto said.
“We have told Ukraine’s authorities that it has been an incomprehensible, unacceptable and unfriendly decision … they showed some readiness to remedy the situation but those endeavours were somehow interrupted half way,” he said. The foreign minister added that the Hungarian government was in contact with its Slovak counterpart, and that the matter would be raised at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday.
“It is strange that a country aspiring to be integrated with the EU is seriously jeopardising the energy supplies of two member states,” he said. “We are working to come up with a solution though we have not caused the problem; Ukraine should resolve it and I sincerely hope that they will soon do so,” Szijjarto said.
Concerning the worldwide IT glitch Szijjarto said it was impacting Budapest’s international airport and serious delays could be expected. He said that the impacted companies included Wizz Air, Ryanair, Eurowings and Turkish Airlines, adding that “several companies” had decided to switch over to manual check-in, “which could be unusual both for staff and passengers.”
