Hungary and Russia are looking for a solution so that the Russian oil group Lukoil PJSC can resume oil deliveries to Hungary, with the entry into force of tougher sanctions targeting the Russian company in Ukraine, reports Bloomberg.

Last month, Ukraine decided to tighten the sanctions imposed on Lukoil, practically banning the Russian oil company from using Ukraine as a transit country for its products.

The Hungarian energy company Mol and the Russian oil company Lukoil are working to find a solution, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter Szijjarto, said on Tuesday evening, at the end of a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, on the sidelines of a UN meeting in New York, according to Agerpres.

“There is currently a legal situation in Ukraine on the basis of which Lukoil is currently no longer making deliveries to Hungary,” Szijjarto said, without giving details on the reasons behind this stop. “Now we are working on a legal solution”, added Szijjarto.

Lukoil is one of the Russian companies that supplies oil to Hungary via the southern branch of the Drujba pipeline, which passes through Ukraine. Hungarian energy group MOL currently relies on Russian supplies for two-thirds of its crude oil needs, but estimates that, starting in 2025, it will be able to completely replace them with oil from other sources.

Hungary has stepped up its energy ties with Russia even after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, signing several deals to increase natural gas supplies after Prime Minister Viktor Orban won an exemption from EU energy sanctions. The government in Budapest managed to recover almost all of the exceptional profits made by the oil group Mol thanks to a special tax intended to cover the holes in the budget.