Contaminated oil from Azerbaijan reached Czechia, but did not threaten supply

Contaminated oil from Azerbaijan has flowed into Czechia via the TAL pipeline in recent days. It had a higher content of organic chlorine than permitted limits allow. The information was confirmed to CTK by Orlen Unipetrol, pipeline operator Mero and the State Material Reserves Administration (SSHR). According to them, refinery operations, the pipeline and supplies to the domestic market are not at risk.

Czechia already has experience with contaminated oil supplies. In 2019, Russian supplies via the Druzhba pipeline were suspended because of this. Oil did not flow through Druzhba for two months at the time due to the necessary pipeline cleaning. However, according to Mero, the oil infrastructure has not been damaged in any way now. "This oil poses no risk to the tanks and pipelines managed by Mero ČR," spokeswoman Barbora Putzová told CTK today.

"We will store the contaminated oil, with a volume of just under 60,000 cubic metres, in cooperation with Mero at the Central Oil Tank Farm in Nelahozeves and in storage tanks at the refinery in Kralupy nad Vltavou. This oil will then gradually be blended into further deliveries at a precisely specified ratio to dilute it and subsequently process it safely," said Orlen Unipetrol spokesperson Pavel Kaidl.

According to him, the incident is now being further investigated. "It has not affected the operation of our refineries or Czechia's oil supply," Kaidl stressed. Mero and TAL are also taking part in the investigation.

The SSHR is also monitoring the situation and likewise confirmed that market supplies are not at risk. "At this point, two things follow from this. First, it is good that we have already built up a certain oil reserve to ensure the operation of the refinery in Kralupy nad Vltavou. Previously, our emergency reserves contained only Russian-grade oil suitable for processing at the refinery in Litvínov," said the authority's head, Pavel Švagr.

He recalled that after supplies from the Russian Druzhba pipeline ended, the SSHR lent almost one-third of its Russian oil reserves to Orlen Unipetrol, while the refinery is now returning Azeri Light crude to the authority's reserves, which is normally processed at the refinery in Kralupy nad Vltavou.

"That is good news, because we are already able to replace any potential disruption in oil supplies for both of our refineries," Švagr noted.

According to him, the refineries have so far returned about half of the borrowed reserves, with the remainder due to be returned by the end of August. However, due to the problems with contaminated oil, the return of the final portion will probably be delayed by a month, Švagr said.

Oil currently flows into Czechia only via the western route, through Italy's TAL pipeline and the connecting IKL pipeline. Until the beginning of this spring, oil also flowed into Czechia through the Russian Druzhba pipeline, but supplies through it were halted at the beginning of March.

However, this did not threaten oil supplies to Czechia, as the TAL pipeline was expanded. The project, costing approximately CZK 1.6 billion, increased the pipeline's capacity for Czechia by four million tonnes of oil per year, making it possible to deliver up to eight million tonnes annually to the country through the pipeline. According to the state, this enabled Czechia to completely cut itself off from Russian oil.

The TAL pipeline begins in Trieste, where oil is imported from several countries and continents. The largest share consists of supplies from areas around the Caspian and Black Seas, followed by the US and Africa.