Hungary Faces Dilemma Over Russian Oil as U.S. Tightens Sanctions ━ The European Conservative

Hungary is working on finding a way to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Russian oil companies, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday, October 24th.

U.S. President Donald Trump, a close ally of the Hungarian prime minister, on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Russia for the first time in his second term, targeting Lukoil and Rosneft, as he tries to pressure Moscow into agreeing a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Trump’s decision drove up oil prices and left Hungary and Slovakia, which remain the EU’s largest importers of Russian oil, facing fresh uncertainty.

The Hungarian Prime Minister said in an interview with state radio Kossuth:

We are working on how to circumvent these sanctions.

Hungary’s oil and gas company MOL’s refineries in Hungary and Slovakia, with a total capacity to process 14.2 million tonnes of crude oil a year, are reliant on Russian crude transported through the Druzhba pipeline.

The sanctions are expected to take effect in late November.