Russian oil flows to Central Europe halted due to payment problems
Ukraine halted the flow of Russian oil to southern Europe in early August due to the inability to process oil transit fees as a result of sanctions.
Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft reportedly made the payments to its Ukrainian counterpart Ukrtransnafta on 22 July, but the payment was not accepted by European banks who are not allowed to process it barring permission from their national regulators , leading to flows being cut off from 4 August.
The main recipients of oil through the Druzhba route are Hungary's MOL and Unipetrol which in turn supply Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Flows through the southern arm of the Druzhba pipeline typically run at approximately 250,000 barrels a day.
MOL however said it had begun talks to restart flows by making the transit fee payments itself.
If supplies remained cut off beyond a couple of weeks Hungary might be forced to tap its strategic reserves.
In response to the news, front-dated Brent crude oil futures were adding 0.81% to $97.46 a barrel on the ICE.