Hungary has announced that it will participate in the construction of a pipeline through which Russian oil will be supplied to Serbia. “The new oil pipeline, which will join Druzhba, will allow Serbia to receive cheaper [российскую] crude oil,” said Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs.
Currently, Serbia mainly receives oil through Croatia, where it is imported by sea. But those supplies will stop when an embargo on Russian oil tankers goes into effect in December. Meanwhile, Hungary will continue to receive oil from Russia through the Druzhba pipeline – an exception has been made for it from the embargo.
Hungary has no access to the sea and the ability to quickly diversify supplies; Serbia is in a similar situation. Both countries are heavily dependent on Russian fossil fuels.
Kovac’s statement confirms the words of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who recently said that the plan involves the construction of an oil pipeline costing 100 million euros from Hungary to Serbia within two years. Croatia, he said, “turned out to be an unreliable partner.”
Last week, Vucic met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, and they agreed, in the latter’s words, on “long-term, large-scale cooperation in the field of energy.”