The Czech Republic expects to end consumption of Russian oil in July next year after an upgrade to a transalpine pipeline allows it to ramp up shipments from the west, the deputy chairman of the state pipeline company MERO said on Thursday.
The country currently sources half its oil needs from Russia but has been looking to end those purchases following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and an EU ban on most imports of Russian oil.
The Czech Republic expects to start increasing shipments of crude oil from the west in the second quarter of next year and to completely halt deliveries of Russian oil from July, MERO operations director Zdenek Dundr told Reuters.
"If we are able to confirm in the first quarter that all is ready, then a gradual logistical switch of supplies will follow," Dundr said in an interview at MERO's storage facility in Nelahozeves, north of Prague.
"The plans are for a full switch to supplies of non-Russian crudes from the second half," he said, adding that July was the month eyed for an end to Russian oil imports.
That will follow MERO's completion of a $60 million capacity upgrade to the Trans Alpine (TAL) pipeline from Italy to Germany that feeds a connector to the Czech Republic, Dundr said, doubling capacity from the west to 8 million tonnes a year.
"At the end of this year, TAL will be able to pump at maximum capacity, which we need to supply the Czech Republic," Dundr said.
While the Czech Republic started its diversification process in 1995, building the IKL pipeline connecting to TAL in southern Germany, one of its two refineries owned by Poland's PKN Orlen (PKN.WA) has continued to process Russian oil.
Dependency on Russian flows meant the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Germany and Poland were exempt from EU sanctions on Russian pipeline oil. Germany and Poland have both since stopped Russian imports, though Slovakia and Hungary have spoken of keeping the flows.
Alternative crudes to match Russian oil properties will be blends of crudes from Latin America, Saudi Arabia and the North Sea, Dundr said.
Even after a full switch from Russian supplies, he said the Druzhba pipeline that carries Russian crude westwards will remain filled with oil and ready as a back-up.
It could potentially be used in the future to carry crudes from Ukraine or Kazakhstan, or from the Janaf pipeline from Croatia, he added.
The pipeline could also theoretically be adapted for reverse flows from west to east to supply Slovakia, Dundr said, though this was still a hypothetical option.
($1 = 24.0690 Czech crowns)
