Oil flows via Druzhba pipeline to Czech Republic stopped
Oil flows via the Russian pipeline Druzhba to the Czech Republic stopped again, but there is no threat of shortages, Czech pipeline operator Mero said on Tuesday.
Mero issued their statement after news agency cited Czech Industry Minister Lukas Vlcek saying that flows had stopped.
"Refineries in the Czech Republic are well prepared for this situation and at the same time we have a robust system of state material reserves, so I must reassure everyone that there is enough oil for the needs of households and companies," Lukas Vlcek told CTK.
He added that in the event of a long-term stoppage of supplies from Druzhba, the Czech Republic could switch to the Italian TAL+ pipeline, which is technically ready.
Mero said that thanks to state material reserves it was possible to replace a short-term outage of oil and oil products for up to 90 days.
Czech refiner Unipetrol said that fuel production at both its refineries in Litvinov and Kralupy and Vltavou was at full capacity.
"However, in order to ensure the supply of the Litvinov refinery and its production of fuel for the Czech market until the refinery is supplied with alternative crude-oil blends via the TAL/IKL pipeline, we have requested a crude-oil loan from the State Material Reserves Administration," Unipetrol said in an emailed statement.
Unipetrol's mother company, Orlen, did not immediately respond to a request for comment and neither did Hungarian refiner MOL or Slovak pipeline operator Transpetrol.
The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary were affected by a stoppage of the Druzhba pipeline in December.
The Czech Republic has worked to wean itself off Russian oil and gas since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but its dependence on Russian fuel meant it was exempt from European Union sanctions on Russian pipeline oil.
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