Oil flows from Russia’s second largest crude producer Lukoil LKOH.MM to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline have stabilised following an interruption caused by sanctions, Kommersant daily reported on Monday.

Lukoil resumed supplies to refineries operated by Hungary’s energy company MOL MOLB.BU in September after a halt to shipments following Kyiv’s addition of Lukoil to a sanctions list in June.

The newspaper, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, said that supplies via a Hungarian trader Moltrade-Mineralimpex Zrt reached around 300,000 metric tons (71,000 barrels per day) in October, on a par with supplies in September.

Half of the volumes were exported to MOL’s refinery in Hungary, while the other half was sent to MOL’s plant in Slovakia.

In contrast to many other European Union countries, Hungary seeks to maintain close political and business ties to Russia, and continues to rely on Russian energy.

Together with Slovakia and the Czech Republic, it has been granted an exclusion from a European Union embargo on Russian oil because of its lack of alternatives, but the EU has urged it to diversify its resources.

In total, Russian oil companies exported around 853,000 tons of oil via Druzhba to the refineries in Slovakia and Hungary in October, the newspaper said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Barbara Lewis)