Dr. Máté Tóth, the “energy lawyer,” provides a quick analysis
Ukraine, which spans our Transcarpathia and heavily Russian territories, is cutting off oil transit in return for our hundred-billion-dollar humanitarian aid. What this peculiar country is doing is severely against international law. According to the Energy Charter, to which Ukraine is a party, transit serving other countries must always be ensured!
Those are the facts. Following Politico, portfolio.hu – and soon the entire Atlanticist press – are already subtly absolving the Ukrainians, arguing that we must understand this move, especially since it disadvantages the Hungarians. However, they have also started an incredible campaign of fearmongering and rumor-spreading against our country.
- Politico and portfolio.hu, through their megaphone Ilona Gizinska, a so-called “Hungary expert,” claim that Hungarians will face “skyrocketing energy prices and power shortages within weeks” because “there are oil-based power generation units in Hungary.”
Contrary to this, it’s important to know: NO, THERE ARE NOT. The major fuel oil-operated power units were gradually shut down or converted around the 1990s and early 2000s. For instance, in 2003, the Dunamenti Power Plant converted its polluting heavy fuel oil F-blocks to gas (this process is called retrofit). Today, there is minimal capacity left, with three fast-start blocks (Sajószöged, Litér, Lőrinci), which is essentially nothing.
Hungary’s energy mix is actually: ~45% Paks nuclear power, ~27% renewables (half of this is solar), ~20% natural gas, ~7% coal/lignite. Therefore, there will be no skyrocketing energy prices or power outages, contrary to the panic-inducing claims of the Atlanticist-globalist press, which somehow “forgot” to condemn Ukraine’s actions. Never mind. The point is: we don’t generate electricity from oil, so the hostile and severely illegal Ukrainian action has no impact on domestic energy prices or electricity, contrary to the fearmongering.
- As for oil, the hostile and outright illegal behavior of Ukraine is certainly harmful and egregious. It’s blackmail and political threats from a country that supposedly needs help and allies right now. It affects us and harms us.
However, the Politico, portfolio.hu, and their current “think tank” “Hungary expert” are silent about the fact that today, Hungary has exactly 667.6 ktons (576.8 ktoe) of crude oil, 516.4 ktons (557.7 ktoe) of diesel, 240.5 ktons (259.9 ktoe) of gasoline, and 14.2 ktons (15.3 ktoe) of kerosene in strategic reserves. This is more than 90 days’ worth of each, individually!
And that’s just our statutory strategic reserves: the refineries’ reserves, the wholesalers’ stocks, etc., are also there. Those barrels aren’t just for background images in portfolio articles; they are precisely for such situations.
So, the so-called “Hungary expert” Ilonka, heavily promoted by the mentioned press, is a sociologist by training and a politician by activity, as much an expert as, say, Calum Nicholson, a social anthropologist.
Let’s not fall for lies, rumor-spreading, and panic-inducing tactics. Just as the same press’s climate emergency scaremongering is being washed away by rain clouds, we shouldn’t believe in power outages or oil supply emergencies either.
Edited by Ivan Hajda