On Saturday, the Hungarian Energy Ministry warned EU member states that the new price cap on Russian petroleum products, which comes into effect on February 5th will inevitably cause the bloc to be hit by fuel shortages and skyrocketing energy costs.

In its statement, it lamented that the anti-Russian measures would also inevitably affect Hungary as well in the long term, even though the nation had not supported them.

On Friday, the EU and G7 nations plus Australia announced they had settled on two price caps on Russian refined petroleum products, with a price cap for higher grade products such as gasoline and diesel being set at $100 per barrel, and a price cap for lower grade products, such as home heating oil, being set at $45 per barrel. The new measures, which also enjoyed the support of the United States, came two months after the same bloc set a $60 per barrel price cap on exports of Russian seaborne crude oil.

The price caps are compromise measures, aimed at trying to reduce the ability of Moscow to profit from the high energy costs which have developed following the invasion of Ukraine, while not preventing the sale of Russian energy supplies, and possibly triggering a supply crisis which would send prices even higher. Diesel presently is trading for around $110 to $120 per barrel, while crude oil is remaining close to $80.

In response to the measures, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a Presidential decree in December, with retaliatory measures designed to punish any nation which attempted to enforce the price cap on Russia. It banned the delivery of oil to any nation which so much as mentioned the price cap in its sale contract.

The Russian decree went into effect on February 1st, 2023, and will remain in effect until July 1st, 2023. The new price caps on refined petroleum products will go into effect February 5th.