Slovakia says hardest hit by Russia oil sanctions, expects solidarity

Slovakia stated on Friday it might be hardest hit by European Union sanctions on Russian oil and it anticipated solidarity from Brussels to mitigate the impression.

The financial system ministry stated Slovakia had sought a three-year derogation on trade-in piped Russian oil and oil merchandise however was unsuccessful as powerful sanctions had been accepted with the goal of hitting Russian revenues following its invasion of Ukraine.

“The embargo … was approved in a version with direct impact on the market for motor fuels and their production in Slovakia,” the ministry stated in a press release.

“Within the declared solidarity we expect individual access to resources from REPower EU,” it stated, referring to the EU’s plan to finish dependence on Russian fossil fuels and deal with the local weather disaster.

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The ministry stated the ultimate model of the sanctions meant Slovakia might maintain importing crude from Russia by way of the Druzhba pipeline, however after eight months this might solely be used for manufacturing for the home market and oil product exports to the neighboring Czech Republic, which might be potential for additional 10 months.

Slovakia’s solely home refiner, Slovnaft, runs on Russian oil.

It stated on Thursday the sanctions would have a extreme impression on its manufacturing and create market shortages in fuels within the area because it couldn’t make technological modifications in time.

The 124,000 barrel-per-day refinery, owned by Hungary’s MOL, is predicated close to Slovakia’s borders with Hungary and Austria, and likewise has a product pipeline to the Czech Republic.

It exports nearly all of its output, together with diesel, petrol, jet gas, sulphur, and plastics to quite a few central and west European international locations and stated pressured a discount in capability can also threaten provides to the home market.