Government officials announced Thursday that the Czech Republic has achieved its first ever full independence in terms of oil supply from Russia.
According to a Reuters article, this milestone was achieved due to completion of the capacity upgrades at the TAL pipe, which is located in the West.
In a Thursday televised press conference, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said that first supplies of increased oil had been sent via pipeline to central oil depots in Czech Republic.
No need for Russian oil
Fiala said at the depot located in Nelahozeves 20 km northeast of Prague that “our dependence on Russia’s oil is over after 60 years.”
Fiala added:
First time ever, Czech Republic receives all its oil through Western routes and not Russian sources.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Czech government is trying to decrease its dependence on Russian oil. Since the 1970s, about half of Czech Republic’s oil imports come from Russia through the Druzhba Pipeline.
MERO, the Czech operator of pipelines, upgraded the Transalpine pipeline (TAL), which transports crude oil from Italian tankers at Trieste port to Germany.
The oil is then fed into the Ingolstadt-Kralupy-Litvinov (IKL) pipeline to the Czech Republic.
The Czech Republic can now meet its annual requirements due to the TAL Upgrade, which increased the available capacity to 8 millions tonnes per annum.
Additional tankers are secured
Orlen Unipetrol is a Czech refiner that has used oil from the state reserves in order to maintain production after Druzhba Pipeline halted supply back in March.
After a capacity boost, the company has now prepared to move to supplying full quantities through TAL.
Next week, the Litvinov refinery is expected to begin processing Norwegian crude oil from the TAL pipe upgrade.
The Czech Republic imported 6 million tonnes of crude oil last year. Statistics from the Industry Ministry show that 42 percent of oil imported through Druzhba.
The Russian oil market share has decreased from 58% in the two previous years.
The country will purchase oil in 2024 from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Norway, and Guyana.
Druzhba Pipeline to Remain
MERO has announced that they intend to keep the Druzhba crude oil pipeline filled.
The action taken is to prepare for future oil flows that could be from a variety of sources.
Odesa in Ukraine is one such source that could potentially supply oil for the Druzhba Pipeline.
Jaroslav Panucek – the Director of MERO – the Czech Oil Pipeline Operator – assured stakeholders that Druzhba remains functional and ready to resume oil transport whenever needed.
The pipeline infrastructure, despite current geopolitical uncertainty and the discussions about its future are sound and ready to use.
Pantucek confirmed that various scenarios and factors are being evaluated in order to determine the future use of the Druzhba Pipeline.
The evaluation will likely include an analysis of geopolitical trends, energy markets, and their potential impact on the energy security of the countries concerned.
Hungary and Slovakia are both pro-Moscow countries, but they want to keep receiving Russian oil via the Druzhba Pipeline.
As new information becomes available, this post Czech Republic ends its dependence on Russian oil after sixty years might be updated.
