May 31 (SeeNews) - Croatia needs up to 60 days to increase the capacity of its Adria Oil Pipeline to bring non-Russian crude to Hungary, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said.
“To replace in the southern Druzhba [pipeline] the Russian oil that goes to Hungary, there is in place in Croatia the Adria pipeline where we can increase, the prime minister explained to us tonight, the capacity so that it will over time deliver other oil than the Russian oil and will be able to deliver that to Hungary,” von der Leyen told a news conference in Brussels on Monday, according to a video file published on Youtube.
The news conference was held following a meeting of EU leaders discussing a sixth package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine as well as measures to secure the EU's energy independence from Russia.
“The time that is needed for that capacity increase was around 45 to 60 days, so it is in a reasonable time frame and it needs some investment and objectively for this landlocked country Hungary also the refineries will have to be updated because Russian oil is of different quality than the Adriatic pipeline oil,” von der Leyen added.
The European Union leaders enabled concessions to landlocked Hungary in a move to agree an oil embargo on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine, reaching a deal in the early hours of Tuesday to reduce 90% of Russia's crude oil imports into the EU by the end of this year.
Through the oil ban the Commission aims to cut Russia's funding for the war in Ukraine, but it exempted Hungary, which depends on the Druzhba pipeline for oil supplies.
Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday that the capacity of the Adria Oil Pipeline could be expanded by 30% within 20 to 30 days through an investment of 8 million euro ($8.5 million), state TV broadcaster HRT reported.
The Adria Oil Pipeline transports 11.4 milion tonnes of crude oil per year and a 30% increase of its capacity could take the amount to over 15 million tonnes in order to secure normal crude oil supply to Hungary and Slovakia, HRT quoted Plenkovic as saying during the meeting in Brussels.
Janaf [ZSE:JNAF], the company operating the Adria Oil Pipeline, has crude oil and oil products terminals located on the island of Krk, as well as in Sisak, Virje, Slavonski Brod and Zitnjak. It operates 622 kilometres of pipelines.
Janaf's shares traded 2.63% higher at 5,850 kuna ($830/ 776 euro) on Tuesday afternoon on the Zagreb bourse.
(1 euro = 7.541 Croatian kuna)