Ukrainian foreign minister reacts to Hungarian PM's blocking of joint oil storage plan

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has stated that as long as his Tisza party government remains in power, no Ukrainian oil storage facility will be built in the country.

Source: Hungarian newspaper Népszava; Andrii Sybiha, Ukrainian Foreign Minister, on X (Twitter)

Details: On Monday 21 September, the Hungarian parliament discussed the cooperation agreement signed on Sunday 20 September between Ukraine's Naftogaz and the MOL Group, which concerns the possible storage of Ukraine's strategic oil reserves in Hungary.

In connection with this, Péter Magyar stated that no Ukrainian oil storage facility will be built in Hungary as long as the Tisza government is in power.

According to Magyar, MOL began negotiations with Ukraine's Naftogaz regarding the possibility of storage in Hungary back under the Orbán government; however, the current government considers it unacceptable that the company conducted negotiations with the Ukrainian side without the government's consent.

Magyar noted that earlier he had also informed Zsolt Hernádi, MOL's chairman and CEO, that he considered the company's actions unacceptable and expected MOL to treat the Hungarian state as the owner of a 25 per cent stake.

According to MOL representatives, the matter has not yet reached the stage where it should be reported.

According to a statement from MOL, they are currently only at the very beginning of a preparatory process that could take years, during which the technical, financial and regulatory conditions for storing gas in Hungary are being examined. Because this process is expected to be lengthy, the government was not notified.

In MOL's view, the memorandum of understanding signed with Naftogaz is in line with international practice, under which European countries extend mutual assistance to one another in the storage of strategic reserves of oil and other hydrocarbons.

The MOL Group already stores volumes belonging to the strategic reserves of both EU and non-EU countries in Hungary. According to their statement, they are currently examining the technical conditions and financial feasibility, as well as environmental, safety and regulatory requirements.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reacted to the situation.

Quote from Sybiha: "Another surprising development was statements casting doubt on the direct, pragmatic and mutually beneficial cooperation between Ukrainian and Hungarian energy companies, agreed upon in a bilateral memorandum.

Whenever politics interferes with pragmatic business, nothing good comes of it.

What we've been hearing from Budapest lately leaves us confused. It seems that while Viktor Orbán is gone, his policies of obstructionism and isolationism continue to thrive."

Background: During the Carpathian Summit, the Naftogaz Group signed a memorandum with the Budapest-based oil and gas company MOL Group regarding the construction of facilities to store petroleum products for Ukraine's needs in Hungary near the Ukrainian-Hungarian border.

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Originally reported by Ukrainska Pravda by Volodymyr Tunik-Fryz. Read the full story at the source.