Slovakia taps emergency oil reserves as Druzhba shutdown shifts pressure to Croatia’s Adria pipeline
Slovakia has declared an emergency around the country’s oil supplies, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday. The government is tapping 250,000 tonnes of crude from state reserves to keep Slovnaft’s Bratislava refinery running. Fico also flagged the cost of rerouting oil through Croatia’s Adria pipeline, calling it “more than five times more expensive” compared to the Druzhba line. https://newsnow.tasr.sk/fico-transporting-oil-via-adria-will-be-much-more-expensive-than-via-druzhba/ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-18/slovakia-releases-250-000-tons-of-emergency-oil-for-slovnaft That decision finally puts a figure on an issue that's been simmering since late January, after Russian oil shipments through the Druzhba pipeline stalled—leaving Slovakia and Hungary scrambling for other sources and dipping into their emergency reserves. The European Commission maintains there’s no immediate danger to supply, given both countries have the required 90 days’ worth of backup. But