Druzhba pipeline oil deliveries suspended due to drone strike 🔄

Budapest, March 11 (MTI) – Oil deliveries to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline have had to be suspended due to a Ukrainian drone strike on one of the pipeline’s measuring stations, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday, adding that repairs to the pipeline were under way and oil transit could resume later today.

Szijjártó said he has spoken to Russia’s deputy prime minister in charge of energy affairs, who told him that oil deliveries via the Druzhba pipeline have had to be temporarily halted due to a Ukrainian strike. Repairs are underway, and deliveries could resume late in the afternoon or early evening, he said, according to a ministry statement. “If the Druzhba oil pipeline is rendered inoperable, then it practically becomes physically impossible to supply oil to Hungary and Slovakia,” Szijjártó warned, adding that attacks on Hungary’s energy infrastructure were “unacceptable”.

“We have made this position clear in Brussels on multiple occasions, and the European Commission guaranteed that there would be no attacks on the infrastructure supplying energy to Hungary,” he said. “Unfortunately this isn’t the first time for the European Commission’s guarantee to be violated.”

“We call on the Ukrainians not to attack the infrastructure supplying energy to Hungary,” he said.

Szijjártó said Hungary bore no blame for the war and would continue to stay out of the conflict. “And Hungary’s energy supply is a matter of sovereignty, and we expect everyone to respect that,” he added. “It is clear that peace is needed as soon as possible, because the sooner there is peace, the sooner these attacks will stop and the sooner we will be able to fully secure the infrastructure supplying energy to Hungary,” the minister said. “Therefore we hope that President Trump’s peace efforts this week will be successful,” Szijjártó added.

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UPDATE

Russia’s First Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin later informed Szijjártó that the Russian operator had repaired the damage and restarted transits on the Druzhba pipeline towards Hungary.