Russian Federation to help Serbia build a branch from the Druzhba oil pipeline from Hungary

Russian Transneft has agreed to support Serbia in the realization of the project of the Druzhba oil pipeline diversion from Hungary. This was announced on November 21 by Transneft vice-president Vladimir Kalanda after a meeting of the intergovernmental Russian-Serbian committee on trade, economy and scientific technologies.

According to him, Russia is ready to assist the Serbian Transnafta Pancevo in the construction of a 300-kilometer-long pipeline that will go directly to Druzhba.

"This will allow them to be more independent in oil supplies and significantly increase the volume of oil that is supplied to the territory of Serbia for domestic consumption," Kalanda said.

Back in June 2023, Serbian and Hungarian authorities signed a memorandum on the construction of the oil pipeline. It is assumed that the pipeline will be connected to the Drujba on the Hungarian territory. The relevant agreement was signed by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and Serbian Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic.

Earlier, in August, the head of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (his term expired on May 20), Mykhailo Podolyak, said that Ukraine was going to stop the operation of the Druzhba oil pipeline, through which Russian oil is transited to the European Union.

Then, on September 2, Szijjártó said that the country will not survive without Russian oil supplies and Kiev's decision to stop its transit is a serious challenge for Budapest.

The day before, on November 20, the press service of Russian Grids said that Russia had expanded cooperation with Serbian energy companies: members of the republic's government, as well as representatives of Elektromreza Srbije, Elektrodistribucija Srbije and Elektroprivreda Srbije visited a number of facilities of the Russian power grid holding.

The Druzhba pipeline runs through Russia to the Belarusian city of Mozyr. Then, it branches into two strings: the northern one, heading toward Poland and Germany, and the southern one through Ukraine to Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Croatia.