MOL: Janaf's prices are three times higher than Italian-German-Austrian prices and one and half times higher as Ukrainian prices
Many statements have been made in recent days regarding the prices charged by the Croatian oil transport company, Janaf. MOL's position is clear: let the facts speak for themselves and let's set the record straight.
JANAF currently charges more than three times the transit fee charged by the operator of the TAL pipeline, which departs from the neighbouring port of Trieste and runs through Germany to Vienna.
The Croatian prices are more than one and a half times higher as those applied on the Ukrainian section, while Ukraine is at war, which poses extraordinary challenges for the Ukrainian energy infrastructure and these circumstances are not present in JANAF’s case.
It is important to note that the so-called land transport through Ukraine delivers crude oil to the region directly from the producing companies, with no additional transport costs. In contrast, goods arriving at the port of Omisalj are transported from the producing countries (Libya, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Norway, etc.) by sea in Croatia, which means an additional transport cost of USD 20-25 per ton.
This additional cost makes the already unjustified transport costs on the Croatian route even more expensive.
It is also a fact that in 2022, after the outbreak of the war, the Croatian company increased its transport fees by more than 70%, while we did not experience a similar increase among service providers.
Transport fees can be compared on a per 100 km basis. Charges per tonne are as follows:
|
Pipeline |
Route |
Fee (USD/tonne/100 km) |
|
BTC |
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan |
1.2 |
|
MOL (HU) |
Ukrainian border – Danube Refinery, Hungary |
1.0 |
|
Transneft (RU) |
Samara – Belarus border |
1.0 |
|
TAL / AWP |
Trieste – Vienna |
1.4 |
|
Ukrtransnafta |
Belarus border (through Ukraine) – Hungarian border |
3.4 |
|
Janaf |
Croatia – Hungarian border |
5.3 |
We would also like to emphasize that there is currently no signed contract between MOL and Janaf, meaning that current deliveries are taking place in a legally unregulated environment. MOL continues to seek an agreement, but JANAF is clearly abusing its position by not offering crude oil transportation in line with industry pricing and not taking into account the additional costs of maritime transportation. At the same time, the new contract would place the settlement of disputes under Croatian law and the courts of Zagreb, instead of Austrian law and the Vienna Arbitration Court, which has been the practice in the past years. MOL cannot accept this.