en.Wedoany.com Reported - On August 6, Croatia's Adriatic oil pipeline operator JANAF disclosed that it had completed the signing procedures for the 2026 crude oil transport contract with Hungarian energy company MOL Group. The contract stipulates the transport of 2.05 million tons of crude oil through the JANAF pipeline system, with a term from January 1 to December 31, 2026, under a "take-or-pay" mechanism, meaning MOL pays for the agreed transport capacity. Both parties have been implementing the relevant contractual arrangements since January 1 this year.

This contract continues the crude oil transport cooperation between the two parties from the previous year. In 2025, the annual transport contract signed between JANAF and MOL was for 2.1 million tons, valid until December 31 of that year; the two parties also signed a crude oil storage agreement covering two JANAF storage and transshipment terminals, valid until the end of 2027. Compared with the previous year, the transport volume stipulated in the 2026 contract is reduced by 50,000 tons.

Before the new contract was signed, the two parties had conducted multiple rounds of consultations on transport fees and the pipeline's continuous delivery capacity. In January this year, the "Druzhba" oil pipeline's crude oil transport to Hungary and Slovakia was interrupted, elevating the role of the Adriatic oil pipeline in the two countries' crude oil import systems. In March, MOL and its Slovak subsidiary Slovnaft filed a complaint with the European Commission regarding JANAF's pricing policy; JANAF stated that its service prices are determined based on transport distance and contract volume, and that it applies the same pricing principles to all pipeline users.

The JANAF crude oil pipeline system has a total length of 631 kilometers and a designed annual transport capacity of 34 million tons, capable of delivering crude oil entering Croatia via the Adriatic Sea to refining facilities in Central and Southeast Europe. MOL Group operates the Danube Refinery in Hungary with an annual processing capacity of 8.1 million tons, and its subsidiary Slovnaft operates the Bratislava Refinery in Slovakia with an annual processing capacity of 6.1 million tons, giving the two refineries a combined annual processing capacity of 14.2 million tons.