A top executive at Hungary’s leading oil and gas company has defended the country’s dependence on Russian energy, pointing to the “hypocrisy” among its western allies which are buying “repackaged” fuels from Turkey or India.
“Nobody says oil products refined in Turkey or India from Russian crude cannot enter Europe. Nobody protests, and their role keeps growing,” said György Bacsa, chief operating office of Mol, said in an interview, on the company’s relationship with the oil-producing nation.
Mol continues to buy Russian crude oil — enjoying an open-ended exemption of the EU’s ban on crude imports from Russia — even stepping in as manager of the oil traversing Ukraine after Kyiv barred Lukoil from using its stretch of the Druzhba pipeline in July. Bacsa said the company talked to Ukraine and Russia to ensure the flow of oil that remains vital to the region.