MOL and Slovnaft have turned to the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission

In the letter the companies sent to the EC they state that Janaf informed MOL and Slovnaft that they would only receive crude oil already purchased and scheduled for delivery if MOL and Slovnaft agreed to purchase additional volumes and put in JANAF’s system as “pusher oil”.

The request from the operator of the Adria pipeline came as a surprise to MOL, as this had not previously been an issue in its cooperation with Janaf and is not mentioned in the contract. Moreover, it might as well go against the terms of the contracts the companies signed.

Recently, Janaf was unable to deliver the latest ordered quantity on time and has also indicated that similar conditions will apply to future deliveries. These practices have immediate and serious consequences as Janaf is leveraging its infrastructure position to impose unilateral changes to the contract governing access to non-Russian crude oil transport.

This undermines MOL and Slovnaft’s ability to secure the volumes of non-Russian crude required to meet its regulatory compliance obligations and to ensure the continuous and secure operation of its Slovak refinery, which plays a pivotal role in the fuel supply of several EU Member States.

Besides the well-known capacity and pricing issues of the Adria-pipeline, this recent development again casts a shadow of uncertainty and raises the question of how reliably the southern pipeline system operates. This is of great importance in terms of the feasibility of phasing out Russian oil proposed by the European Union.

Slovnaft and MOL encouraged the Commission to closely monitor the situation. However, they believe that they can build the business relationship with Janaf back on the track of professional cooperation, transparency and fair market conditions.