Gov't Declares Oil State of Emergency, Will Lend 250,000 Tonnes to Slovnaft

Bratislava, 18 February (TASR) - The state will release up to 250,000 tonnes of oil from the national material reserves for the Bratislava-based Slovnaft refinery, according to a decision made by the government at its session on Wednesday in response to the interruption of oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline. At the same time, the government declared a state of emergency in relation to oil supplies. For the oil loan, the refinery will provide a financial deposit or bank guarantee equal to its accounting value. Russia damaged the Druzhba oil pipeline infrastructure in eastern Ukraine in late January. This meant a halt to oil supplies to Slovakia, which haven't been resumed yet. In addition to the Druzhba pipeline, Slovnaft can also import oil through the Adria pipeline, which until now it's only used for alternative supplies, covering just a small portion of its production with it, along with its parent company MOL. According to Slovnaft, ramping up to full use of the Adria pipeline should take 20–30 days, and the release of up to 250,000 tonnes of oil from the national reserves should meet Slovnaft's needs for at least one month. The loan should last no longer than until September, with the refinery gradually returning the oil during this period. The emergency reserves are owned by the Agency for Oil and Oil Product Emergency Reserves. The Economy Ministry last week announced that Economy Minister Denisa Sakova (Voice-SD) and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto had signed a joint letter addressed to Croatia, asking it to enable supplies of Russian oil via the Adria pipeline as one of the possible alternative routes. Although Croatian Economy Minister Ante Susnjar posted on a social network on Tuesday that Croatia wouldn't let fuel supplies to central Europe be threatened and that it's ready to help address the acute disruption within EU law and OFAC regulations, transporting Russian oil via the Adria pipeline is a questionable prospect. The EU has banned deliveries of Russian oil by tankers, and this oil can't reach Croatia without them. ko/df