The Czech Republic will get rid of its dependence on russian oil by refusing to import it through the Druzhba pipeline starting in 2025, representatives of the Czech state energy company Mero said.
Source. This was reported by the BBC.
A year and three months after the start of russia's invasion of Ukraine, Mero managed to reach an alternative agreement with the group of owners of the Transalpine Oil Pipeline (TAL), which supplies oil from the Italian port of Trieste to Central Europe.
According to the new agreement, the Czech company will spend $73 million to increase the capacity of the TAL to double its oil imports through it from 4 to 8 million tons per year.
"This deal is our future. It will cut us off from russia after 60 long years and help us achieve independence, freedom and sovereignty in energy supplies," Mero CEO Jaroslav Pantuček told reporters.
In April, the Czech authorities announced that they were able to completely cut off from russian gas.
The Czech Republic, an EU country with a population of 10.5 million people, imports about 7-8 million tons of oil per year. Until recently, one half of this volume came through TAL and the other through Druzhba.
In May 2022, the European Union banned most oil imports from russia due to russia's aggression against Ukraine, but made a temporary exception for supplies through the Druzhba pipeline.
According to Czech Prime Minister Peter Fiala, this gave his country time to negotiate a deal with TAL.
He called this year's deal "the most important step towards energy independence from russia."
The TAL pipeline is owned by a group of major energy companies, including Mero, Shell, ExxonMobil and ENI.
Background. As a reminder, the Czech Republic has introduced its own "Magnitsky list," and Patriarch Kirill was the first to be included.