Czechs hail end of Russian oil dependence with first increased deliveries from west

By Jason Hovet

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech Republic has become fully independent of Russian oil supplies for the first time in its history, government officials said on Thursday, following the completion of capacity upgrades on the TAL pipeline coming from the west.

The first increased supplies along the pipeline have reached the central oil depot in the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Petr Fiala told a news conference broadcast on Czech TV on Thursday.

"After roughly 60 years, our dependence on Russia (for oil) has ended," Fiala said at the depot in Nelahozeves, 20 km north of Prague.

"For the first time in history, the Czech Republic is completely supplied by non-Russian oil, and fully supplied through western routes," Fiala said.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Czech government has sought to end its partial dependence on the Druzhba pipeline, which has been delivering supplies from Russia for decades and has accounted for about half the country's annual oil imports.

At the end of last year Czech pipeline operator MERO completed an upgrade along the Transalpine (TAL) pipeline, which carries oil from tankers in the Italian port of Trieste to Germany, where it feeds into the Ingolstadt–Kralupy–Litvinov (IKL) pipeline to the Czech Republic.

The TAL upgrade has lifted the capacity available to the Czech Republic to 8 million tonnes per year, enough to meet the country's annual needs.

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Czech refiner Orlen Unipetrol has been tapping oil from state reserves to keep up production after a halt in supplies through Druzhba since March, but is preparing to switch to full supplies through TAL following the capacity increase.

It said Norwegian crude from the TAL pipeline upgrade would reach its Litvinov refinery on Friday and processing would start next week.

"We have secured additional tankers with crude oil from overseas fields. The supply of both of our refineries - Litvinov and Kralupy and Vltavou - is therefore smooth," Chief Executive Mariusz Wnuk said in an emailed statement, without giving further details.

The Czech Republic imported 6.5 million tonnes of oil last year, with 42% of that coming via Druzhba, according to Industry Ministry statistics. That is a reversal from the previous two years when up to 58% of supplies were Russian.

The country also sourced oil supplies from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in 2024, along with some small imports from Norway and Guyana.

MERO has said it would keep Druzhba filled with crude, for potential future flows that could include other sources - such as oil entering from the Ukrainian port of Odesa.

MERO director Jaroslav Pantucek said on Thursday that Druzhba remained functional and ready to resume operations. Its future use was under study, he said.

Druzhba still supplies Hungary and Slovakia, countries with pro-Moscow stances which are both keen to keep receiving Russian oil for the time being.

(Reporting by Jason Hovet and Jan Lopatka; Editing by David Holmes)