Czech officials announced on Wednesday that oil shipments from Russia through the Druzhba pipeline had been interrupted, according to AP News.
State-owned Mero, which manages the pipeline network in the country, has said it is assessing the situation. Mero also emphasised that the Czech Republic had 90 days of oil reserves and that oil deliveries from the West via the TAL and IKL pipelines had not been interrupted.
Meanwhile, Czech Industry and Trade Minister Lukáš Vlček stated that the government did not yet realise what had happened.
The Czech refiners are well ready for such a situation and we have a robust system of state reserves.
The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary are the only remaining EU member states that still receive oil from Russia. Other bloc nations ceased buying Russian oil as part of EU sanctions after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022.
However, an exemption granted by the EU for the Czech Republic expires on Thursday. The government also said it had no plans to extend the deal with Russia’s Druzhba pipeline.
The country has previously invested in doubling the capacity of Italy’s TAL pipeline, which continues as IKL through Germany and to the Czech Republic. The project, capable of delivering up to eight million tonnes of oil a year to Prague, is expected to be completed in early 2025.
