Hungary has increased oil imports from Iraq’s Kurdistan region at the expense of Russian crude in a sign that Middle East producers could be gaining ground in a battle with Moscow for global market share, according to trading sources. This would also be the first confirmation of large Kurdish oil shipments to Europe as autonomous Kurdistan is locked in a standoff with Baghdad over lucrative exports and faces repeated sabotage of the pipeline carrying crude to Turkey’s Ceyhan port. Hungarian oil group MOL receives the bulk of its oil imports from Russia. But it has stepped up imports of oil from Kurdistan since the summer, the sources told Reuters without giving specific volumes, part of a wider increase in seaborne crude purchases for the […]