The share of Russian oil in Czech imports increased in the first half of this year, MERO, the operator of the Czech oil pipeline network, said on Monday, despite a plan by the authorities in Prague to no longer depend on Russian oil supplies. , Reuters and Agerpres report.

According to MERO, Russian oil accounted for 65% of the Czech Republic’s total oil imports in the first half of this year, compared with 56% for all of 2022 and 49% in 2021.

The Czech Republic imports oil through the Druzhba pipeline through Ukraine, as well as through the IKL pipeline, which connects to the TAL pipeline in Germany.

“The share of oil imports from Russia (through the Druzhba oil pipeline) to imports from other countries (through the IKL oil pipeline) in the first half of the year was 65.35%,” MERO reported. MERO’s main client is the oil refining company ORLEN Unipetrol, a division of the Polish group PKN ORLEN, which operates two oil refineries in the Czech Republic, located in Lytvynov and Kralupy.

The Czech Republic can import Russian oil through pipelines thanks to an exemption from the embargo agreed in the summer of 2022 and implemented late last year by the European Union, as the country cannot currently cover all of its seven million tonnes of oil. needs per year from alternative routes through the IKL and TAL pipelines.

The state company MERO has started work on expanding the transport capabilities of the TAL oil pipeline, which will allow the Czech Republic to completely abandon Russian oil supplies from the middle of 2024/2025.

How much Russian oil does the Czech Republic consume annually?

The oil refining company ORLEN Unipetrol did not want to comment on the information about the increase in the share of Russian oil in imports, but said that they work according to all the rules.

ORLEN Unipetrol also announced that it is preparing its Litvinovsky Refinery, which has an annual processing capacity of 5.4 million tons of crude oil and currently operates on the basis of Russian oil, to make a transition to other types of crude oil, and this transition will be completed simultaneously with the completion of the modernization of the pipeline TAL.

“In October, we will conduct month-long tests at the Litvinovsky Refinery, during which we will test the production technology aimed at processing non-Russian oil,” ORLEN Unipetrol said, adding that various types of crude oil from the Middle East, South America and the North Sea will be used.

The Czech Republic requires approximately 7-8 million tons of oil per year, which until now has been split between supplies coming through TAL and those coming through the Druzhba pipeline, which starts in Russia.

The Czech government wants to completely eliminate dependence on Russian oil in the coming years and thus end the exemption it enjoys from the embargo imposed last year by the European Union on oil imports from Russia.

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