Following the launch of an expanded network from eastern Europe, Czech Republic has officially become completely independent of Russian fuel for the first time ever, according to Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Thursday.
A year after Russia invaded Ukraine, the EU and Nato signed a deal to expand the Transalpine Pipeline ( TAL ) from Italy in 2023.
It resorted to Russian crude until products stopped via the Druzhba network in early March, two weeks after the Tar expansion was finished.
” The second increased supplies arrived yesterday,” Fiala told reporters on Thursday.
The Czech Republic is completely supplied with non-Russian fuel via the eastern route for the first time in history, he added.
Following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the 27-nation European Union made a decision to cut its emphasis on Russian fossil fuels.
Most fuel imports from Russia were prohibited by the EU, but Druzhba was exempt because the Czech Republic lacked other alternatives.
The Czech Republic expects to prevent using Soviet uranium for its two nuclear plants this year and has now completely weaned itself off Russian oil.
Up to eight million tonnes of oil will be supplied by the expanded Tar network annually, which Fiala said will” securely include the Bohemian Republic’s consumption.”
Southern Germany receives oil from the European port of Trieste, where it connects to the IKL network to the Czech Republic.
When the original Czechoslovakia, which includes the present-day Czech Republic and Slovakia, was a member of the Russian alliance, the Druzhba pipeline was established in the 1960s.
Tar is controlled by a group of eight oil companies, including Mero, a state-run corporation in the Czech Republic, and Shell, Eni, and ExxonMobil, two international players.
