Croatia’s Janaf on Wednesday rejected in the strongest terms Hungary's MOL energy group CEO Zsolt Hernadi's claims about Janaf’s oil transport fees, stressing that a verified methodology that ensures equal treatment of all clients was used to calculate those fees.

Janaf also stressed the methodology is not related to legal entities, but sections of the pipeline, adding that MOL is acquainted with this.

“Janaf rejects in the strongest terms the repeated claims of the President and CEO of MOL Group, Zsolt Hernadi, about its oil transport fees, made in an interview with a Hungarian news outlet. We emphasise that Janaf and MOL Group have a long-standing partnership and that Janaf is a safe and reliable partner that contributes to a stable oil supply to Hungary and Slovakia,” Croatia’s  crude oil transportation company said in response to Hernadi’s interview with  the Hungarian news website Index

“We call on Hungary’s MOL energy group to use Janaf’s transport capacities, which fully guarantee a safe supply to both refineries,” Janaf’s management said in a press release.

In an extensive interview with the Hungarian news site Index, Hernadi reiterated objections to Janaf’s high fees for oil transportation.

Asked by Index about MOL’s Russian exposure, Hernadi said MOL increased the procurement of crude oil from the south but that the cost of transport via Croatia was four times higher than the fair market price.

Our Croatian partners are abusing our vulnerable position, making the situation more difficult not only for Hungary but also for Slovakia and Czechia, which don’t have access to the sea and whose refineries are designed for refining Russian crude oil, Hernadi said.

MOL always knew that was a challenge, so it spent a lot of money to increase domestic production, developing a southern supply route and transforming the technology of its refineries, he added.

What are our southern partners doing about that now that, due to the sanctions, we badly need the crude oil arriving via JANAF? They are torturing us simply because they can, Hernadi added.

Last July, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Croatian energy transit fees were four times higher than market fees and that this hampered diversification and energy supply for Hungary and Slovakia.

Janaf responded by saying that these claims were incorrect.