BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 7. Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia may push for longer exemption from Russian oil embargo, Trend reports with reference to Capital Economics, a UK-based research and consulting company.
The EU’s proposed embargo of Russian oil imports by year-end has met resistance from CEE countries. Officials have said that this will require significant investment in infrastructure and those in Slovakia and Hungary have said they will not be able to move away from Russian oil for at least three years.
“Oil currently flows to the region mainly through pipelines from Russia, so there is little infrastructure in place to import oil through other sources. This problem is compounded by the fact that several Central European countries are landlocked, making importing oil from elsewhere more difficult (and expensive). Many of the region’s refineries would also need modifying, which Hungary estimates would cost “hundreds of billions of forints”. The EU has granted extensions for Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia until 2024 but we suspect that they may continue to push for a longer transition period,” reads a report released by Capital Economics.
“The bigger picture, though, is that, excluding Poland (which is willing to stop oil imports from Russia), CEE countries make up just 14 percent of the EU’s oil imports from Russia. So even if it takes time for EU members in CEE to move away from Russian oil, Russia’s oil exports will fall sharply and the impact of this will be felt more acutely in 2023.”
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