Hungary Holds Talks With EU Over Proposed Ban on Russian Oil Imports, Oil Continues to Flow to EU
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban held talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Orban's Budapest office May 9 over a proposed ban on Russian oil imports, according to both sides, Bloomberg reported. The talks "made progress but failed to reach a breakthrough." Orban is holding up the EU's proposal to phase out Russian oil imports. Von der Leyen said in a tweet after the meeting that she would put together a virtual conference to strengthen cooperation on oil infrastructure to help assuage Orban's concerns. Last week, Orban said an oil ban could be on the table only with a five-year exemption and billions of dollars to cover the cost of overhauling Hungary's energy industry, Bloomberg said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Meanwhile, Russian crude oil exports continue to flow into the EU while the oil ban is discussed. According to vessel tracking data monitored by Bloomberg, 34 tankers loaded around 24.9 million barrels from Russian export terminals in the week ended May 6, putting average seaborne crude oil flows at 3.56 million barrels a day. This number is down around 2% from the week ended April 29.