Czechs Complete Pipeline to Replace Russian Oil Supply

The Czech prime minister said Tuesday his country no longer needed to import Russian oil, following the completion of an expansion of the Transalpine Pipeline (TAL) from Italy.

The contract to expand the pipeline was signed in May 2023, more than a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to sanctions on Russian energy imports.

“The construction of this expansion has now been completed,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala told reporters.

“Russia can no longer blackmail us and we have a guarantee that we can completely supply ourselves with oil from the West,” Fiala said.

TAL brings oil from the Italian port of Trieste to southern Germany, where it connects to the IKL pipeline to the Czech Republic.

The expansion has doubled oil capacity for the EU and NATO member to eight million tons a year.

Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura said the expansion cost 1.5 billion Czech koruna ($61 million) and was financed by state-run oil transit company Mero.

The country has already completely weaned itself off Russian natural gas.

The Czech Republic gets most of its oil via the Druzhba pipeline from Russia, launched in the 1960s when the country was part of Czechoslovakia, which was part of the Soviet bloc.

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Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union banned most oil imports from Russia, but the Druzhba pipeline was exempted because the Czech Republic had few other options.

Fiala vowed earlier that Prague would seek to cancel the exemption as soon as possible.

Mero chief executive Jaroslav Pantucek said that while minor work has yet to be completed on the new pipeline, the Czech Republic is now fully able to supply oil to local refineries via TAL.

“We are fully capable of supplying oil to the Czech Republic if supplies via Druzhba are halted,” he added.

In 2023, Russian oil accounted for 58% of all Czech oil imports, according to industry and trade ministry data.

TAL, in operation since 1967, is owned by a consortium of eight oil firms, including Mero and global giants Shell, Eni and ExxonMobil.`