For the first time in more than 60 years, oil from Russia will no longer flow into the Czech Republic.

Instead, the country has officially completed its transition to the Western TAL oil pipeline, making it fully independent from Russian crude.

The first increased delivery of non-Russian oil has successfully arrived from a tank farm in Trieste, Italy, to the Central Oil Tank Farm in Nelahozeves, where it will continue on to the Litvínov refinery.

The announcement was made Thursday by Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura, and Jaroslav Pantůček, General Director of MERO ČR, the state-owned company managing oil transit infrastructure.

“We’ve taken another important step towards energy independence,” said Prime Minister Fiala during a press conference in Nelahozeves.

Thanks to the expanded pipeline, the Czech Republic can now receive up to eight million tons of oil per year through Western routes—enough to meet the full demand of local refineries.

“This is the first time we’re using the increased capacity of the TAL pipeline under live operations,” said Pantůček. “The oil arrived yesterday from Trieste, and this afternoon, MERO ČR will begin transporting it to its owner, Orlen Unipetrol, for processing in Litvínov.”

The move follows a 2022 decision by the Czech government to fast-track a project known as TAL-PLUS, which expands the capacity of the Transalpine Pipeline (TAL) that links Italian ports with Central Europe.

The decision came shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which prompted many EU countries to reduce energy dependence on Moscow.

Construction and technical upgrades for the expanded pipeline began in May 2024. According to earlier statements by Finance Minister Stanjura, the entire cost of achieving oil independence—estimated at 1.6 billion CZK—will be covered by MERO ČR from its own revenue.

This marks a historic shift in the country’s energy infrastructure, ending more than 60 years of reliance on the Druzhba pipeline, which had supplied Russian oil since the Soviet era.

Would you like us to write about your business? Find out more