“Many EU members took costly but necessary efforts to get rid from dependence on Russian gas and oil … mainly because it stinks of blood,” said one EU diplomat, who like others for this story was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU imposed an embargo on imports of Russian oil — a key lifeline that remains one of the primary sources of revenue for the Kremlin’s war effort.
But it exempted pipeline supplies — including those coming to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic via the Druzhba pipeline — to give those countries time to find alternative supplies, with the understanding they would do so rapidly.
Germany and Poland, who also imported supplies from Druzhba, stopped buying Russia’s crude last year. The Czech Republic aims to end its imports from Moscow by 2025, while Slovakia too has begun upgrading its primary refinery to process more non-Russian crude.
But Hungary chose to go the other way, instead ramping up oil imports via the pipeline by 50 percent compared to 2021. Budapest also inked new deals with Russian gas giant Gazprom.
The Algyő oil field is an oil field located in Algyő, Csongrád County, in Hungary. It was discovered in 1965 and developed by MOL Group. It began production in 1965 and produces oil. The total proven reserves of the Algyő oil field are approximately 629 million barrels (84×106tonnes). It provides nearly half of Hungary’s crude oil.