*

Hungary and Slovakia have been trying to secure supplies

since

attack on Druzhba pipeline

*

Pipeline operator JANAF questions Hungary's need to tap

reserves

*

Hungary's MOL oil firm says JANAF must allow transit of

Russian

seaborne oil

(Updates with statement from Croatia's JANAF pipeline operator

in paragraphs 2-4)

BUDAPEST, Feb 20 (Reuters) - ​Hungary's government will

release about 1.8 million barrels of crude ‌oil from its

strategic reserves after a drone attack on the Druzhba pipeline

late last month stopped oil flow, according to ⁠a government

decree published late on Thursday.

Croatia's JANAF pipeline operator, however, said there was

no need ⁠for Budapest to tap its reserves after Hungary's oil

company MOL ‌said on Friday JANAF ‌must allow transit of

Russian seaborne oil to Hungary and Slovakia during the Druzhba

outage.

"At this moment, a significant quantity of ​non-Russian crude

oil is being transported via JANAF's ‌pipeline for MOL Group,

while three additional tankers carrying non-Russian oil, also

for MOL Group, are on their way to the Omisalj Terminal," JANAF

said in a ​statement.

"There was no need to tap into (their) ​reserves since ‌oil

transport via the JANAF pipeline towards MOL's refineries is

being carried out continuously and without delays."

Hungary and Slovakia, which have the only remaining

refineries in the EU using ⁠Russian oil through Druzhba, have

been trying to secure supply since flows were halted ⁠on January

27 following what Ukraine said was a Russian drone attack that

damaged pipeline infrastructure.

Both countries have blamed Ukraine for the delay in

restarting the flows for political reasons.

SCRAMBLE FOR CRUDE SUPPLIES

MOL is entitled to priority access to released crude oil

reserves, and it will have access ⁠to the ‌freed reserves until

April 15 and has to return them by August ‌24, the Hungarian

government decree said.

At the end of January, Hungary had enough crude oil ⁠and

petroleum product reserves to cover 96 days, according to data

on the Hungarian Hydrocarbon Stockpiling Association's website.

As the two countries scramble to ensure supplies, MOL

ordered tankers delivering Saudi, Norwegian, Kazakh, Libyan and

Russian oil to supply its Hungarian and Slovak refineries and

halted diesel deliveries to Ukraine earlier this week.

MOL said that first shipments were expected to arrive at the

port of Omisalj in Croatia in early March. After ​that, it will

take a further 5-12 days for the crude oil to reach its

refineries.

The Slovak government has also declared an oil emergency

situation and has pledged to release 1.825 million ​barrels of

oil following a request from Slovakia's ‌Slovnaft refinery, which

is owned by MOL.

(Reporting by Anita Komuves; Editing ​by Anil D'Silva and Emelia

Sithole-Matarise)