Hungary final month known as on the EU to power Ukraine to again down over the sanctions, which it claims quantity to power blackmail. The EU, nonetheless, declined to interact, indicating there have been a number of choices to make sure oil would nonetheless circulation.
Now Gulyás is asking on Kyiv to approve a brand new plan that will see Lukoil’s merchandise merely traded to a different firm on the border earlier than going by Ukraine.
“As quickly as we will signal the contracts with the Ukrainian facet, they’ll enter into power,” he mentioned. The association would imply paying an extra $1.50 per barrel to safe transit outdoors of earlier agreements.
Responding to a query from POLITICO, Ukraine’s power minister, German Galushchenko, declined to decide to supporting the plan however mentioned Kyiv would “see whether or not we might get some requests for negotiation from the Hungarians.”
The proposal shouldn’t be fully new, and should already informally be in use, specialists declare.
“MOL proposed this on the primary day of the disaster,” mentioned Martin Vladimirov, director of the power and local weather program on the Heart for the Research of Democracy. In keeping with Vladimirov, the proposal will show tough for Kyiv to reject so long as different suppliers of Russian oil can transfer their merchandise by the nation.