PM: Czechia will break its dependence on Russian crude oil by mid-2025

Czechia will break its dependence on Russian crude oil by the middle of next year at the latest, Prime Minister Petr Fiala told reports following a meeting with the management of the state owned company Mero which manages the country’s central reserves. He said Czechia  would request the cancellation of the exemption for Russian oil imports as soon as the Italian TAL pipeline expansion project is completed. Work on it is now in full swing and planned technological modifications will be completed by the end of this year.

Czechia would thus break its 60-year-long dependence on Russian crude oil, delivered via the Druzhba pipeline.  Last year, 7.4 million tons of crude oil flowed into Czech refineries, of which about 58 percent was oil from Russia. The rest came from Germany's IKL pipeline, which is connected to the Italian TAL pipeline.