Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 11, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleCrude oil shipments via the Druzhba pipeline have resumed after a suspension caused by a Ukrainian drone attack. Hungary confirms the resumption.
BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Shipment of crude oil via the Druzhba pipeline resumed on Tuesday afternoon after a suspension following a Ukrainian drone attack on a metering station, said Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto.
Ukraine said on Tuesday it had struck an oil refinery near Moscow and a facility in Russia's Oryol region that is part of the Druzhba pipeline system exporting oil to Europe. Szijjarto earlier said that crude shipments had to be suspended because of the attack.
"The Russian system operator has repaired the damage caused by the Ukrainian drone attack, allowing oil shipments to Hungary to resume via the Druzhba pipeline," Shijjarto said.
Slovak pipeline operator Transpetrol said the supply of oil to Slovakia via Druzhba had been halted on Tuesday and that oil flows were expected to resume in the evening.
The southern strand of the Druzhba pipeline, which transports oil from Russia to Europe, forks in Ukraine near the Slovak border, with one line supplying Slovakia and Czech Republic while the other reaches Hungary.
Russia's Transneft, which operates Druzhba in Russia, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"Explosions were ... recorded in the area of the Steel Horse linear production dispatch station (Oryol region, Russia), which manages technological processes for the Druzhba oil pipeline," Kyiv's General Staff said in a statement.
Hungary imports most of its crude oil via the Druzhba pipeline, which transports Russian crude through Belarus and Ukraine to Hungary and also Slovakia.
Supplies via Druzhba to Czech refineries have been halted since last week. Czech refiner Unipetrol, owned by Poland's Orlen, said late on Monday that it has started drawing oil from state reserves to continue production at its refineries.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves in Budapest, Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw, Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv and Vera Dvorakova in GdanskEditing by Louise Heavens, Susan Fenton and David Goodman)
The suspension of crude oil shipments was caused by a Ukrainian drone attack on a metering station.
The Druzhba pipeline supplies oil to Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.
The Druzhba pipeline in Russia is operated by Transneft.
Slovak pipeline operator Transpetrol reported that oil supply to Slovakia had been halted but was expected to resume in the evening.
Hungary imports most of its crude oil via the Druzhba pipeline, which has now resumed operations following repairs from the drone attack.
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