Oil shipments through the Druzhba pipeline might restart next week.

Hungary's election victor Peter Magyar announced on Friday that Russian oil shipments through the Druzhba pipeline via Ukraine might resume next week.

The outgoing government of Hungary, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has been in conflict with Ukraine regarding the halt of Russian oil supplies through Druzhba following an interruption that Ukraine attributes to a Russian attack in late January.

While Ukraine claims that repairs are time-consuming, the Hungarian and Slovak governments accuse Kyiv of delaying the process. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated this week that Druzhba should be operational by the month's end. Magyar, whose center-right Tisza party secured a significant majority in the April 12 elections, thereby ending Orban's 16-year tenure, mentioned that MOL's CEO Zsolt Hernadi informed him that "based on their partners' information, they expect the Druzhba oil pipeline to restart next week."

Magyar, who plans to assume office by May 9 or 10, noted that Hernadi would visit Russia to discuss oil supplies. He remarked, "They will discuss various matters, and they will certainly address the need for oil in addition to restarting the pipeline."

"They need to determine if Hungary can rely on a continuous oil supply despite the current circumstances," Magyar added. Oil prices have surged since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran at the end of February, which created unrest in the Middle East and affected global markets. Without Druzhba, MOL and its Slovak refinery Slovnaft have increasingly depended on supplies via the Adriatic pipeline from Croatia. Hungary and Slovakia continue to rely on Russian oil even as the EU seeks to reduce energy imports from Moscow following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.