Photo: Petr Fiala
The Czech Republic will stop importing Russian oil no later than the first half of 2025, as state-owned company MERO completes the modernization of the Transalpine Oil Pipeline (TAL), Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Tuesday, June 4, Reuters reports.
Last year, MERO and TAL, in which MERO owns 5% of the shares, signed an agreement to increase the capacity of the TAL pipeline by 4 million tonnes, which will replace Russian oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline, lasted for 60 years.
Fiala told reporters that work on the technological modernization of TAL has already begun and will be completed this year.
“We expect it to be fully operational no later than the first half (of 2025),” the Czech prime minister said at a press conference.
The country of 10.9 million people needed 7.4 million tons of crude oil last year, of which more than half came through Druzhba, and the rest via TAL.
The EU has banned Russian oil supplies from December 2022, but has excluded supplies via the Druzhba pipeline to give countries dependent on it time to find alternative sources.
The TAL pipeline runs from Italy to Germany and connects to the IKL pipeline from Germany to the Czech Republic.
Once upgraded, TAL will roughly double the capacity reserved for the Czech Republic – to 8 million tonnes of oil per year, enough to meet the needs of the country’s two refineries, both owned by the Polish company Orlen.
Prepared by: Sergey Daga