{"id":539033,"date":"2025-10-31T04:00:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T04:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/539033\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T04:00:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T04:00:18","slug":"hungarys-foot-dragging-on-russian-oil-crashes-into-reality-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/539033\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungary\u2019s foot-dragging on Russian oil crashes into reality \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>But experts aren\u2019t convinced. That\u2019s \u201ccomplete nonsense,\u201d said Tam\u00e1s Pletser, an oil and gas analyst at Erste bank, since the final cost of fuel in Hungary is set not by crude, but rather more expensive fuels like diesel by the regional Mediterranean benchmark price.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"693\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2243241042-1024x693.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7424709\"  \/>Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n has moaned the country cannot quit Russian oil without jeopardizing its energy security and risking exploding prices at the pump. | Isabella Bonotto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>As a result,\u00a0when\u00a0crude\u00a0prices rise,\u00a0that \u201cdoesn&#8217;t have a major impact on the end product prices,\u201d he said.\u00a0What it would mean, though, is \u201cdeclining profit margins\u201d for\u00a0Hungary\u2019s main oil importer MOL,\u00a0Pletser\u00a0said, and fewer tax revenues for Budapest.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In reality, \u201cthe most problematic financial aspect of rejecting Russian oil is related to &#8230; the Hungarian budget,\u201d said\u00a0Ilona Gizi\u0144ska, a\u00a0Hungary expert at the Centre for Eastern Studies think tank, which\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/think.ing.com\/snaps\/hungarian-budget-under-pressure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">currently\u00a0faces a yawning\u00a0deficit<\/a>.\u00a0There&#8217;s no \u201cpolitical will\u201d to quit\u00a0Russian oil, she said, precisely\u00a0because it is up to\u00a0$30 per barrel cheaper than\u00a0alternative\u00a0supplies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hungary\u2019s foreign ministry\u00a0declined to comment. A\u00a0spokesperson for MOL said its \u201cmain concern was security of supply\u201d while adding that\u00a0Croatia had \u201cnearly doubled\u201d\u00a0its transit fees\u00a0at the end of 2022.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This information\u00a0is\u00a0a commercial secret and is therefore unverifiable;\u00a0Croatia\u00a0denies\u00a0the allegations.\u00a0\u201cThe transit fees are the same before\u00a0and now,\u201d said \u0160u\u0161njar. They\u00a0represent\u00a0just \u201c2 percent\u201d of the\u00a0final price\u00a0of\u00a0oil, he added,\u00a0and apply \u201cequally to all partners.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Others in the bloc agree. \u201cWe often\u00a0don&#8217;t\u00a0get an objective representation of the facts from Hungary,\u201d said\u00a0a\u00a0diplomat from an EU country, who was granted anonymity to speak freely.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But experts aren\u2019t convinced. That\u2019s \u201ccomplete nonsense,\u201d said Tam\u00e1s Pletser, an oil and gas analyst at Erste bank,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[136104,1194,6215,13490,38231,32,35,25833,1214,2190,475,2661,15857,332,2663,811,1200,657,49,1220,1781,333,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-539033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-andrej-plenkovic","9":"tag-budget","10":"tag-cooperation","11":"tag-croatia","12":"tag-dan-jorgensen","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-energy","15":"tag-energy-supply","16":"tag-exports","17":"tag-hungary","18":"tag-imports","19":"tag-oil","20":"tag-pipelines","21":"tag-russia","22":"tag-sanctions","23":"tag-security","24":"tag-tax","25":"tag-ukraine","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","28":"tag-viktor-orban","29":"tag-vladimir-putin","30":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115466786103870195","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}