Share of Russian oil in Czech imports rose slightly to 58 percent last year

Last year, oil from the Russian Druzhba pipeline accounted for 58 percent of total imports to Czechia, up about two percentage points year on year. The rest came via the German IKL pipeline, which connects to the Italian TAL pipeline. A total of 7.4 million tonnes of oil flowed into Czechia last year, roughly the same amount as a year earlier. Jaroslav Pantůček, CEO of state-owned company Mero, said this at a press conference today. The company is currently preparing an expansion of the TAL pipeline, which, once completed, is expected to make the Czech Republic independent of Russian oil.

Oil currently flows into Czechia from two main sources. One is the Druzhba pipeline, which carries oil from Russia. The rest arrives via the German IKL pipeline, which connects to the Italian TAL pipeline. TAL 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 United States and Africa.

Imports of oil via the Druzhba pipeline are therefore rising despite the anti-Russian sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine. A ban on imports of Russian oil into the European Union took effect in December the year before last. However, imports via the Druzhba pipeline—which has a southern branch running through Ukraine to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and a northern branch running to Poland and Germany—are temporarily exempt from the embargo.

The volume of Russian oil is expected to fall in the future. Mero began work on expanding TAL last year. The project, costing approximately 1.6 billion crowns, is expected to increase capacity for Czechia by four million tonnes of oil a year from next year, allowing up to eight million tonnes to be delivered to the country annually via the pipeline. Under the state’s current plans, Czechia could therefore completely cut itself off from Russian oil.

Mero owns and operates the Czech sections of the Druzhba and IKL pipelines and is the sole oil transporter to the Czech Republic.

In the past, Czechia depended on Russian gas supplies as well as oil. However, the EU began restricting imports of Russian gas in 2022 as part of its anti-Russian sanctions. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian gas accounted for around 97 percent of imports to Czechia; last year, the figure was 3.8 percent. Most gas now flows into the Czech Republic from Norway and from LNG terminals in the Netherlands and Belgium.