Croatia’s JANAF and Hungary’s MOL Group have signed a take-or-pay agreement to transport 2.05 million tonnes of crude oil through the Adriatic pipeline in 2026, securing Hungary’s principal alternative supply route after months of commercial disputes and political confrontation under Viktor Orbán’s former government.
Announced on Thursday and applied retroactively from 1 January, the contract requires MOL to pay for the reserved capacity whether it uses it or not. The volume is slightly below the 2.1 million tonnes contracted for 2025.
Tankers unload at JANAF’s Omišalj terminal on the Croatian island of Krk, from where crude can be pumped northwards to MOL’s Danube refinery in Hungary and the Bratislava refinery operated by its Slovak subsidiary, Slovnaft. The two plants have a combined annual capacity of 14.2 million tonnes and remain heavily dependent on Russian crude delivered through the Druzhba pipeline.
The contract resolves the immediate absence of a transport agreement for 2026, but not the broader argument over whether Adria can replace Druzhba. MOL has questioned the pipeline’s sustained capacity and accused JANAF of charging excessive tariffs. JANAF says it can fully supply both refineries, while long-term independent tests are intended to establish how much oil the system can carry continuously.
The conflict intensified after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which fundamentally disrupted the region’s existing energy supply system. In April 2023, Hungarian officials accused the pipeline operator of charging several times the market rate and questioned whether it could reliably supply MOL’s refineries in Hungary and Slovakia.
The Croatian government rejected the allegations, arguing that Budapest was underusing an available route while preserving its reliance on discounted Russian oil. As the European Union increasingly moved to phase out Russian energy imports, the dispute escalated further. Tensions deepened again in January 2026, when Kyiv halted transit through Druzhba, citing a Russian strike on the infrastructure. The Orbán government accused Ukraine of interfering in the election to unseat the incumbent leadership, and JANAF increasingly became caught up in those broader tensions.
MOL and its Slovak subsidiary, Slovnaft, formally reported JANAF to the European Commission on 4 March for alleged monopoly abuse, followed by a second complaint on 13 March over pricing, accusing the company of exploiting the Druzhba crisis. JANAF responded that MOL was not seeking energy security but ‘extra profits from Russian oil’.
The tone changed after Péter Magyar and Tisza Party won the election in 12 April, ending the 16-years rule of Orbán and Fidesz–KDNP. Magyar pledged to diversify supplies and phase out Russian energy imports by 2035 while saying Hungary would continue buying energy in the ‘cheapest and safest way possible’.
While the current contract falls well short of the volumes previously transported through Druzhba to Hungary, JANAF could become the backbone of a gradual transition if tests confirm Zagreb’s claim that the Adria pipeline can carry 11–15 million tonnes annually.
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