Mol and Slovnaft report Croatia’s Janaf to EU

Mol and its Slovak subsidiary Slovnaft have reported the Croatian company Janaf, which operates the Croatian Adria oil pipeline, to the European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition on charges of abuse of monopoly, Mol said in a statement on Wednesday. According to the Hungarian oil company, Janaf is delaying the reception of Russian oil by sea and its transport to Hungary and Slovakia via the Adria pipeline, citing the need for legal review, which Mol considers to be an abuse.

Janaf and Mol have been in a heated dispute for some time, especially since, as Mol's statement puts it, "on January 27, 2026, crude oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia via the Friendship pipeline were interrupted," – without specifying that shipments were halted due to a Russian military strike on the pipeline. The pipeline has not been operational since then, so oil can only reach Hungary through the other pipeline, Adria.Since then, the Hungarian government and Mol have repeatedly stated that, as Hungary has been exempted from EU and US oil sanctions so that it can continue to use Russian crude oil, if it cannot import it via the Friendship pipeline from Russia via Ukraine, it is allowed to import it by sea via the Adria pipeline.

Mol's statement also notes that this view has been confirmed by the Hungarian and Slovak authorities and that "the condition is also specified in the relevant EU text on sanctions".

Even so, Janaf, which "has a monopoly on supplying Hungarian and Slovakian refineries from the sea," hasn't confirmed yet that it will accept Russian crude oil coming in by sea.

According to Mol, "Janaf's behavior amounts to a denial of supply and access."

"Instead of ensuring access on fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory terms, Janaf has used its control over essential infrastructure to restrict access. This further exacerbates the already acute insecurity of supply resulting from the current armed conflicts," Mol said in a statement.

"EU competition law clearly states that a company with a monopoly in the field of energy infrastructure is in a position of dominance. Control over such infrastructure allows the operator to behave independently of consumers and competitors, including by permanently raising prices above competitive levels or denying access. According to Mol and Slovnaft, Janaf's behavior constitutes an abuse of its dominant position," the statement reads.

Mol is asking the European Commission to end Janaf's infringement through an accelerated procedure and to ensure that Mol and Slovnaft have access to critical infrastructure. "The European Commission's intervention would also put an end to the unjustified denial of access to essential facilities, which is detrimental to consumers in several Central European countries and to the public interest, as it jeopardizes the security of energy supply in the vulnerable Central and Eastern European region."

According to the Hungarian company, Janaf bears legal and financial responsibility for the financial losses resulting from the delayed receipt of the confirmation. Mol reserves the right to assert its claim for damages against the Croatian company.

In its letter to the European Commission, Mol once again calls attention to the fact that, according to the Hungarian oil company, Janaf has been charging three to four times the fair market price for transportation since 2022 and is still unwilling to make any substantial changes. Mol and Slovnaft are therefore submitting another complaint about Janaf's abusive pricing and negotiation practices. Janaf responded to these allegations in a statement, saying that the Mol Group had intensified its attacks against Janaf with a series of public statements, attempting to create the appearance of justification for importing Russian oil at a discount, which generates an additional profit of EUR 1 billion per year.

The Friendship pipeline has also sparked a war of words between the Hungarian and Ukrainian governments. Most recently, Viktor Orbán published satellite images on Monday which, according to him, prove that there are no technical obstacles to reopening the Friendship oil pipeline damaged in a Russian attack, and he is asking that Hungarian and Slovak experts be allowed to inspect the pipeline on site. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded by saying that satellite images cannot reveal what is happening to the pipeline and the control center of the Friendship pipeline, so no conclusions can be drawn from the images referred to by Orbán.