In another sign of Europe’s fragile dependence on Russian energy, oil flows from Russia to Central Europe have come to a halt due to a dispute over pipeline payments, raising fears that an “energy war” between Moscow and its European oil customers could escalate.
Hungarian, Slovak and Czech authorities confirmed on Tuesday that deliveries of Russian oil from a critical pipeline had ceased last Thursday. The three countries, which rely heavily on Russian oil to fuel their economies, are exempt from a European Union decision to ban imports of Russian oil from the end of this year.
The dispute centers on the southern stretch of a Cold War-era pipeline — called Druzhba, the Russian word for friendship — that carries crude oil about 2,500 miles from the Urals through Ukraine, to central Europe.
Transneft, the public operator of the Russian part of the pipeline, pays transit fees to its Ukrainian counterpart, UkrTransNafta, for the oil to pass through the country. But on Tuesday, Transneft said its July payment had been refunded and blamed problems with European sanctions aimed at punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Transneft said UkrTransNafta then halted oil flows to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
UkrTransNafta had no immediate comment.
Jozef Sikela, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, said in a statement on Twitter that his country was no longer receiving oil from Russia and was in contact with “all relevant stakeholders” in the hope of finding a solution to the situation.
“The next few days will show whether this is a further escalation of the energy war by Russia or a technical problem with payments,” Sikela said.
Transpetrol, the operator of the pipeline in Slovakia, and MOL, the operator in Hungary, confirmed that no crude was reaching their country due to the payment problem between Russia and Ukraine.
All three said they have oil reserves that would allow them to cover any shortfall over the next few weeks. But a prolonged disruption could spell trouble for refineries connected to the link.
MOL said in an emailed statement that it was “continuously working on a solution and also in talks to meet the costs themselves.”
An alternative pipeline across the Adriatic Sea could be used to supply oil to the three countries, according to IHS Markit, a research firm. But he warned that capacity reaching Hungary and Slovakia may not be enough to fully cover shortages if Russia were to halt deliveries altogether.
He estimated that as of January, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic received around 250,000 barrels a day from Russia through the pipeline.
Germany and Poland, which are at the northern end of the pipeline, were not affected by the outage, Transneft said.
The price of Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, rose on news of the pipeline closure but then fell back, trading down 0.5% to just over $96 a barrel.
Since invading Ukraine in February, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has shown he is willing to use his control of the energy tap as leverage over Europe. He has also demonstrated his knack for unbalancing opponents by sending mixed signals and trying to pit Western allies against each other.
In the spring, Russia cut off natural gas deliveries to several European countries, starting with Bulgaria and Poland, then to Finland. In June, the day the leaders of France, Germany and Italy traveled to Kyiv, those countries reported a shortfall in Russian gas supplies, as did Austria and the Czech Republic.
Flows via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to Germany, the main European consumer of Russian gas, were reduced by 60% in June, then by 80% in July. Moscow blamed the disruption on a component of the pipeline that was being refurbished by a German firm at a factory in Canada, sparking tension between Ottawa and Berlin.
Benjamin Novak and Monika Pronczuk contributed report.