Druzhba pipeline is set to restart oil flows to Europe, potentially unblocking EU’s Ukraine loan
Exactly when the Ukrainian loan will be released depends largely on Hungary and Slovakia and whether they want the oil flow to reach their countries first.
WE ARE READY TO CONTINUE TRANSIT
Crude oil supplies from Ukraine to Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline are expected to resume early on Thursday, Slovakia’s Economy Minister Denisa Sakova said on Wednesday.
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He said on Facebook that Ukraine had told Slovakia that work had begun in Belarus to put pressure on the pipeline to allow oil that has been stopped since late January to flow again.
Meanwhile, Hungarian oil group MOL said Ukraine had informed it that deliveries of Russian crude oil would continue via the Druzhba pipeline.
“According to the notification, JSC Ukrtransnafta is ready to restart the transit of crude oil to Hungary and Slovakia,” MOL said in a statement. he said. Ukraine will resume pumping oil through the Druzhba pipeline on Wednesday, an industry source told Reuters on Tuesday, after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said repairs had been completed and called on the EU to authorize a 90 billion euro loan.
ON THE MATTER OF UKRAINIAN LOAN
With the prospect of oil flowing again, ambassadors of EU countries in Brussels will continue talks on final approval of the loan, which Budapest has opposed until oil exports resume.
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As a member of the European Union, Hungary has the authority to block the loan even if there is no contribution. It will meet two-thirds of the financing needs of Ukraine, which wants to fend off Russia’s invasion, in 2026 and 2027. The capacity of Druzhba, which means friendship in Russian, is between 1.2 million barrels and 1.4 million barrels per day, and this figure is likely to increase up to 2 million barrels per day. But flows have fallen to a fraction of that as a result of Western sanctions as well as repeated disruptions due to drone strikes.
Hungarian election winner Peter Magyar called on Zelenskiy on Monday to reopen the damaged pipeline as soon as it is operational and for Russia to resume shipments.
“We have fulfilled all our confirmations and commitments. We have done everything… and the infrastructure has been repaired,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said. he said. “We need to move forward together now so that Ukraine can get the loan.” Separately, the Ministry of Economy said Germany had been informed that Kazakh crude oil would not reach the PCK Schwedt refinery from May. Industry sources said on Tuesday that Russia was preparing to stop oil exports from Kazakhstan from May 1 via the Druzhba pipeline, which would directly hit PCK, one of Germany’s largest refineries.
