Managing director for corporate communications Szabolcs I Ferencz said the MOL Group made the purchase at market prices “in the interest of diversifying our crude oil supplies and testing different qualities of oil in our refineries”.

He added that the oil had arrived at the Croatian port of Omisalj at the weekend. Croatian news agency HINA reported the arrival of a crude delivery from Kurdistan in Omisalj earlier on Monday, quoting a report by Croatian national broadcaster HRT.

The buyer of the shipment was MOL, an unnamed source at the Croatian oil pipeline operator JANAF told HRT. MOL and JANAF had signed an agreement under which MOL would transport 1.28 million tons of oil through the port of Omisalj in the next twelve months, HRT added.