Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 20, 2026
3 min readLast updated: April 3, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleHungary will veto a €90bn EU loan to Ukraine until Druzhba oil flows resume after a Jan 27 outage. Budapest taps reserves as MOL reroutes crude via Croatia, while Slovakia also releases stocks to protect supplies.
BUDAPEST/WARSAW, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Hungary will block a 90-billion-euro ($106 billion) EU loan for Ukraine until it resumes oil shipments to the country via the Druzhba pipeline, its foreign minister said on Friday after Budapest said it would tap strategic reserves to tackle a shortage.
Hungary and Slovakia, which have the only remaining refineries in the European Union using Russian oil through Druzhba, have been trying to secure supply since flows were halted on January 27 following what Ukraine said was a Russian drone attack that damaged pipeline infrastructure.
Both countries have blamed Ukraine for the delay in restarting the flows for political reasons. Reuters requested comments from the Ukrainian foreign ministry and the state oil and gas company on Thursday.
"By blocking oil transit to Hungary through the Druzhba pipeline, Ukraine violates the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, breaching its commitments to the European Union. We will not give in to this blackmail," Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on X.
DIPPING INTO OIL RESERVES
The Hungarian government said in a decree late on Thursday that it would release about 1.8 million barrels of crude oil from its strategic reserves to make up for shortfalls.
Croatia's JANAF pipeline operator, however, said on Friday there was no need for Budapest to do so after Hungary's oil company MOL said JANAF must allow transit of the Russian seaborne oil during the Druzhba outage.
"At this moment, a significant quantity of non-Russian crude oil is being transported via JANAF's pipeline for MOL Group, while three additional tankers carrying non-Russian oil, also for MOL Group, are on their way to the Omisalj Terminal," JANAF said in a statement.
"There was no need to tap into (their) reserves since oil transport via the JANAF pipeline towards MOL's refineries is being carried out continuously and without delays."
SCRAMBLE FOR CRUDE SUPPLIES
MOL is entitled to priority access to released crude oil reserves, and it will have access to the freed reserves until April 15 and has to return them by August 24, the Hungarian government decree said.
At the end of January, Hungary had enough crude oil and petroleum product reserves to cover 96 days, according to data on the Hungarian Hydrocarbon Stockpiling Association's website.
As the two countries scramble to ensure supplies, MOL ordered tankers delivering Saudi, Norwegian, Kazakh, Libyan and Russian oil to supply its Hungarian and Slovak refineries and halted diesel deliveries to Ukraine earlier this week.
MOL said that first shipments were expected to arrive at the port of Omisalj in Croatia in early March. After that, it will take a further 5-12 days for the crude oil to reach its refineries.
The Slovak government has also declared an oil emergency situation and has pledged to release 1.825 million barrels of oil following a request from Slovakia's Slovnaft refinery, which is owned by MOL.
($1 = 0.8484 euros)
(Reporting by Anita Komuves, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Hungary plans to veto a €90bn EU loan for Ukraine, linking approval to the resumption of Russian oil transit via the Druzhba pipeline that was halted on January 27.
Budapest says Ukraine is delaying Druzhba oil flows for political reasons and argues the halt breaches commitments, so it will block the loan until transit resumes.
Hungary is releasing strategic oil reserves and MOL is sourcing alternative crude via Croatia’s JANAF pipeline. Slovakia declared an oil emergency and is releasing reserves.
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