Hungarian prime minister blocks planned Ukraine oil storage facility

Ukraine's Naftogaz and Hungary's MOL signed a memorandum on September 20 to build an oil storage facility for Ukrainian needs near the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar said two days later that the project will not proceed as long as his Tisza party holds power.

Magyar told parliament he had informed MOL's management of his position and reminded them the state owns a 25 percent stake in the company. Hungarian authorities say the government never authorized MOL's negotiations on the facility.

Naftogaz head Serhiy Fyodorenko said the storage facility would sit outside the range of Russian strikes on Ukrainian fuel infrastructure, calling diversification of supply routes a matter of market stability.

MOL described the memorandum as a preliminary agreement whose preparation would take years, and noted that it already stores oil in Hungary for EU and non-EU countries alike.