The Druzhba pipeline's southern leg resumed crude oil flows on April 22, 2026, after 87 days offline — ending one of three simultaneous pipeline disruptions that have compounded the Hormuz supply shock. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy confirmed repairs on April 21 (RBC-Ukraine); MOL (Hungary) confirmed crude deliveries resumed on April 22-23 (CNN), with pumping beginning after Hungary's new Prime Minister Peter Magyar removed the political blockage on the EU €90 billion loan for Ukraine following his April 12 election victory.
The restart is genuinely positive. Druzhba supplies approximately 700,000 barrels per day to Hungary and Slovakia via its southern leg — crude that these two landlocked CEE refiners cannot easily replace without access to the Adria pipeline from Croatia (approximately 3× normal logistics cost). MOL's Százhalombatta and Slovnaft's Bratislava refineries have been absorbing elevated input costs since January 27. The restart removes that specific pressure.
However, the Druzhba restart does not fix the underlying global supply deficit. The 0.7 mb/day it restores operates in a system with 9.1 mb/day of Gulf production shut-ins (EIA April 7). CPC Novorossiysk was attacked by Ukrainian drones on April 6, with mooring pipeline, berth, and four storage tanks damaged — reducing its ~1 mb/day capacity to approximately 65%. The combined effect of CPC damage and Druzhba recovery leaves the net non-Hormuz disruption picture roughly unchanged versus last week.
Brent settled at $105.33/bbl on April 25 — well above the $65 pre-war baseline — because the Hormuz shutdown is the dominant market variable and it has not changed. The EIA's April 7 STEO forecast of $115/bbl average for Q2 2026 before gradual easing remains the central scenario. The US SPR has released approximately 53.7 Mbbl of its 172 Mbbl commitment — insufficient to offset the 5.1 mb/day Q2 global inventory draw.