Hungary imports Kazakh oil by sea via Croatia for the first time

Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company KazMunayGas (KMG) has made its first-ever delivery of oil to Hungary by sea, using a Croatian port. The announcement was made on the company’s website on August 4.

A shipment of 85,000 tons of Kazakh crude oil was delivered to the Danube Refinery in Százhalombatta as part of a strategic partnership with Hungary’s MOL Group.

The delivery took place in two stages. First, the Kazakh-owned tanker Alatau, operated by Kazmortransflot, transported the crude from the Russian port of Novorossiysk to the Croatian port of Omišalj. From there, the oil was pumped to its final destination through the Adriatic Pipeline (JANAF), operated by the Croatian company Janaf.

Following discussions between representatives of the three companies in Croatia, a framework agreement was signed between KazMunayGas and MOL Group regarding future deliveries of Kazakh oil.

This development enables Kazakhstan to broaden the reach of its oil exports to the European Union, while allowing Hungary to diversify its energy imports.

The Adriatic pipeline has a throughput capacity of 14.4–16.4 million tons per year, which exceeds the combined oil demand of Hungary and neighboring Slovakia (11.1–11.2 million tons annually). Both countries' refineries are technically capable of processing non-Russian crude, a fact demonstrated in 2019 during the Druzhba pipeline contamination incident involving Russian oil.

Despite available alternatives, Hungary’s dependence on Russian oil rose to 86% in 2024, up from 61% prior to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Slovakia remains almost entirely dependent (nearly 100%) on Russian supplies.

• In early July, it was reported that Hungary’s MOL expressed interest in the idle Ukrainian Odesa–Brody pipeline, viewing it as another potential route for diversifying oil imports.
• The European Union plans to fully phase out imports of Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027.