TAL pipeline supplying Czechia was out of service for five days after power line damage

The TAL pipeline, which has been a key source of oil for Czechia since last year, was out of service for five days last week. The cause was damage to a power line. During that time, Czechia drew oil from storage facilities in Germany. The pipeline is now back in operation. The news was reported today by Seznam Zprávy. The cause of the damage is unclear, according to the news outlet, and the possibility of a deliberate attack is also being investigated.

On Monday, the government approved a loan of 100,000 tonnes of oil from emergency reserves for domestic refineries operated by Orlen Unipetrol, enough for around four days of operation, due to reduced supplies from TAL. Industry and Trade Minister Karel Havlíček (ANO) said the pipeline was subject to ongoing maintenance and reconstruction work that had been planned well in advance.

However, according to Seznam Zprávy, the pipeline was completely out of service for five days last week. The cause was damage to a high-voltage power line near the Paluzza pumping station in the northern Italian Alps, not far from the Austrian border. “Last week, electricity grid operator Terna asked us to disconnect the Paluzza pumping station because an electricity pylon supplying our station had been damaged,” said Paola Pasin, a spokesperson for TAL Group.

The fault at the station, the pipeline’s last pumping station before the Alpine massif, halted the flow of oil through the entire pipeline, the news outlet reported, because the crude oil could not be pumped at sufficient pressure to overcome the change in elevation. “The pipeline was shut down due to the power outage and resumed operations a few days later, when electricity transmission system operator Terna restored the power supply,” Pasin added.

The outage began on March 26 and lasted five days. The cause of the damage to the high-voltage power line is still unclear. According to Seznam Zprávy, intelligence services in several countries are investigating the incident amid suspicions of a deliberate attack.

During the outage, oil reached Czechia only from storage facilities in Germany via the IKL pipeline, which connects to TAL in Ingolstadt. “From the perspective of oil supplies to the Czech Republic, transport through the IKL pipeline proceeded as planned, primarily thanks to the sufficient volume of oil stored in the tanks at the Mero Germany tank farm,” said Barbora Putzová, a spokesperson for Czech pipeline operator MERO.

The TAL pipeline starts in Trieste, where oil is imported from several countries and continents. The largest share comes from areas around the Caspian and Black Seas, the US and Africa. Since supplies via Russia’s Druzhba pipeline ended last year, TAL has been the only source of oil for Czechia. Following last year’s expansion, it can supply up to eight million tonnes of oil annually to the Czech Republic.