Crude shipments on Druzhba pipeline suspended after drone attack, Hungary says
- Hungary says no shipments via Druzhba for now due to drone attack
- Slovak pipeline operator says oil flows to Slovakia via Druzhba should resume Tuesday evening
- Ukraine says it struck oil facility in Russia's Oryol region
Shipments of crude oil via the Druzhba pipeline have been suspended following a Ukrainian drone attack on a metering station, Hungary's foreign minister said in a Facebook video on Tuesday.
Ukraine said on Tuesday it had struck an oil refinery near Moscow and a facility in Russia's Oryol region that is part of the Druzhba pipeline system exporting oil to Europe.
"Due to the drone attack last night, crude shipments had to be suspended on the Druzhba oil pipeline to Hungary," Peter Szijjarto said.
Slovak pipeline operator Transpetrol said the supply of oil to Slovakia via Druzhba was halted on Tuesday and that oil flows were expected to resume in the evening.
The southern strand of the Druzhba pipeline, which transports oil from Russia to Europe, forks in Ukraine near the Slovak border, with one line supplying Slovakia and Czech Republic while the other reaches Hungary.
"I have just talked to the deputy energy minister of Russia who told me that due to the attack shipments are not possible now but works are underway, and if nothing extraordinary happens, then late afternoon or in the early evening crude shipments to Hungary can resume," Szijjarto said.
Later in a press statement the foreign ministry said that Szijjarto had talked to Russia's Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Alexander Novak.
Russia's Transneft, which operates Druzhba in Russia, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"Explosions were...recorded in the area of the Steel Horse linear production dispatch station (Oryol region, Russia), which manages technological processes for the Druzhba oil pipeline," Kyiv's General Staff said in a statement.
Hungary imports most of its crude oil via the Druzhba pipeline, which transports Russian crude through Belarus and Ukraine to Hungary and also Slovakia.
Meanwhile, supplies via Druzhba to Czech refineries have been halted since last week. Czech refiner Unipetrol, owned by Poland's Orlen, said late on Monday it has started drawing on oil from state reserves to continue production in its refineries.
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