MOL: Janaf’s prices are three times higher than those of competitors; Janaf: “Russian oil is 30% cheaper”

MOL claims that Janaf currently charges more than three times the transit fee of the one charged by the oil pipeline operator TAL, which departs from the port of Trieste and passes through Germany to Vienna.

The Hungarian company also states that Croatian prices are one and a half times higher than those applied “on the Ukrainian part”, while Ukraine is at war.

At the same time, MOL notes that land transport through Ukraine delivers crude oil to the region directly from the producing companies, without additional transportation costs, and that the goods arriving at the port of Omišalj are transported from the producing countries (Libya, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Norway, etc.) by sea in Croatia, which means an additional transportation cost of 20 to 25 dollars per ton.

“This additional cost makes most of the unjustified costs of transportation on the Croatian route even more expensive,” claims MOL.

He adds that in 2022, after the outbreak of war, Janaf increased its transportation fees by more than 70 percent.

MOL emphasizes that there is currently no signed contract between MOL and JANAF, which means that current deliveries take place in a legally unregulated environment.

“MOL is still trying to reach an agreement, but Janaf is clearly abusing its position by not offering the transportation of crude oil in line with industry prices and not taking into account the additional costs of maritime transportation. At the same time, the new contract would place the resolution of disputes under Croatian law and the jurisdiction of the courts in Zagreb, instead of under Austrian law and the Arbitration Court in Vienna, which was the practice in recent years. cannot accept,” the press release said.

Security of supply or extra profit?

Janaf announced tonight that MOL Group is intensifying attacks on them with a series of public statements, trying to create the appearance of justification for its own import of discounted Russian oil, on which it makes about one billion euros of additional profit annually, thus reacting to MOL’s allegations about transit fees.

“The discussion about the price “per ton per 100 kilometers” misses the point because Janaf is a 2.3 times shorter pipeline than Russia’s Druž. The customer buys tons of oil delivered to the destination, not tons per kilometer of the pipeline. The only relevant criterion is the total cost of transportation per ton. According to that criterion, oil transportation via Janaf is approximately three times cheaper per ton than transportation via the Druž pipeline. It’s a comparison that makes market sense,” said the transport company.

The difference in the total price of crude oil does not arise from transportation, butć from the fact that Russian crude oil is about 30 percent cheaper than non-Russian crude oil, they clarify and add that pipeline transport only accounts for a few percent of the total oil price and is not a decisive factor.

“Janaf’s role in ensuring a stable supply to Hungary and Slovakia was also confirmed in recent events, when eight non-Russian oil tankers were accepted in order to maintain the continuity of deliveries. The system is operational, the capacity exists and the alternative works in practice. Therefore, it is legitimate to ask the key question: is the priority the security and diversification of supply to Hungary and Slovakia?” “Slovakia or maximization of MOL’s profits based on discounted Russian oil?”, they conclude in their announcement from Janaf.