PRAGUE, Jul 21The Czech Republic will receive Russian oil through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline until it finds a replacement for it, which is to expand the capacity of the transalpine TAL pipeline as part of the TAL-plus project, which will be implemented in early 2025, the Prague online publication Novinky reported on Friday.
“Initially, the exception for the Czech Republic from the EU sanctions on oil imports from the Russian Federation was to be valid until 2024. However, according to Zdenek Dundra, a representative of the Czech oil pipeline operator MERO, the situation is such that the Czech Republic will import Russian oil through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline until it finds a replacement. the first months of 2025,» the statement said.
These data were confirmed to the publication by the representative of the Czech government, Vaclav Smolka. «We have oil supplies secured until TAL is fully expanded,» he said.
The project, which is expected to cost about 1.6 billion crowns (about $74.4 million) and will be paid for by MERO, will increase the capacity of the currently overloaded TAL pipeline by 4 million tons, i.e., to a level of more than 46 million tons of oil per year.
A few days ago, MERO, 100% state-owned, began work to expand TAL's capacity. The company has completed the selection of pump suppliers and has started the pipeline modification design and civil works.
«At the moment, we have completed the selection of technological components that will be installed on certain sections of the gas pipeline. These are modern pumps, the performance of which is comparable to electric locomotives,» Dundra said.
Currently, according to the publication, oil is supplied to the Czech Republic in two directions — via the Druzhba pipeline and via the IKL pipeline, connected near the German city of Ingolstadt with the TAL pipeline, coming from the Italian city of Trieste. Each of the sources provides approximately half of the supplies to the Czech Republic, that is, approximately 4 million tons per year.