““Russia can no longer blackmail us (with energy supplies),” said the Prime Minister of the country Petro Fiala.”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“This is a decisive moment for the Czech Republic, because Russia can no longer blackmail us (with energy supplies),” said Prime Minister Petro Fiala.
Prague has invested more than 1.5 billion Czech crowns ($61 million) to double the capacity of Italy’s TAL pipeline, which runs from Italy to Germany, to 8 million metric tons a year. This amount of imported oil will fully cover the country’s needs.
State-owned pipeline company MERO said it will complete operational testing and certification of the new system in the coming months in cooperation with the TAL consortium. The company expects the Czech Republic to be cut off from Russian oil and fully supplied with oil via the western route through the IKL and TAL pipelines by the middle of this year.
Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura said that oil refiner Orlen Unipetrol no longer plans to import Russian oil starting from the second half of the year.
The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary are the only EU member states that still receive oil from Russia. The other 24 EU countries have stopped buying Russian oil as part of EU sanctions following a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Czech Republic has already stopped importing Russian gas.
Last October, the Bulgaria-based Center for the Study of Democracy said the Czech Republic spent more than €7 billion on Russian oil and gas – more than five times the €1.29 billion it gave to Ukraine in military aid.