Hungary’s Magyar will talk to MOL leadership, focus on fuel supplies

BUDAPEST, April 15 (Reuters) – Hungary’s election-winner Peter Magyar said on Wednesday he would need to hold talks with the leadership of oil company MOL, adding that ensuring fuel security would be the top priority in the coming weeks.

Magyar’s centre-right TISZA (Respect and Freedom) party won a landslide victory in Sunday’s election, ending nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 16-year rule.

In early March, Orban imposed a cap on fuel prices as soaring oil prices, fuelled by the war in Iran, drove global diesel and petrol prices higher.

His government also banned the export of crude oil, diesel and 95-octane petrol and said it would release 45 days worth of state fuel reserves, as Hungary contended with a halt in supplies through a key pipeline carrying Russian oil via Ukraine.

Data from the Hungarian Hydrocarbon Stockpiling Association showed that Hungary’s strategic oil and oil-product reserves fell to 44 days of net imports by the end of March, from 91 days at the end of February. In a statement on Tuesday, the association said replenishment was under way and reserves had since risen to 53 days of net imports.

European Union member states must maintain 90 days of net imports.

“With the strategic oil reserves, the acting government has a huge responsibility in what it does in the next 20-30 days,” Magyar said. “Everyone hopes that this Druzhba pipeline can restart by the end of April but even if it does it will take some time for strategic reserves to be replenished.”

“The most important is that security of supply must be ensured in the next few weeks under the outgoing government and then in the first days of the TISZA government.”

MOL said in a response to emailed Reuters questions on Tuesday that its crude oil supply was uninterrupted as oil was coming via the Adriatic pipeline even though supplies via the Druzhba pipeline were still suspended.

“Following agreements with Libya, Kazakhstan, Norway, and Saudi Arabia, we have also reached agreements on deliveries with companies in the United States. The Danube Refinery is operating at reduced capacity due to a fire that occurred at one of our units in October,” MOL said.

“Fuel supply in Hungary remains uninterrupted”.

(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Louise Heavens)