Brussels – Goodbye, Russian oil. After decades, Czechia has ended its dependence on Moscow’s crude. After completing work on the TAL pipeline (running from Italy), Prague can now supply itself entirely through Western routes.
“After about 60 years, our dependence on Russia is over,” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told reporters yesterday (April 17) while speaking at the depot in Nelahozeves, about 25 kilometers north of the capital. “For the first time in history, the Czech Republic is fully supplied with non-Russian oil, and entirely via Western routes,” the premier, an ally of Giorgia Meloni in Europe in the ranks of the Conservatives and Reformists, added.
After 60 years we are independent from Russian oil! pic.twitter.com/FHPN7K9Rjm
– Petr Fiala (@P_Fiala) April 17, 2025
In Nelahozeves, the arrival of the first supplies via the Transalpine Pipeline (TAL) was being celebrated. The pipeline connects the port of Trieste with Karlsruhe and Neustadt an der Donau in Germany, passing through Austria. Following work completed at the end of last year by the Czech operator Mero, the TAL is now connected to the Ingolstadt-Kralupy-Litvínov (IKL) pipeline, which transports crude oil from Germany into the Czech Republic.
As a result of this connection, Prague’s annual capacity has risen to 8 million tons of oil, a figure in line with the Central European country’s energy needs. This infrastructure became necessary after Prague decided, following the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, to no longer purchase oil from the Federation.
Since the 1960s, Czechia has been receiving crude oil from Moscow via the Druzhba (literally “Friendship”) pipeline, which in the days of the USSR supplied Western members of the communist bloc and is still the world’s longest pipeline, a snake of metal that winds some 4,000 kilometers across the Eurasian continent. However, Prague stopped purchasing from the Druzhba in March, resorting to domestic reserves while awaiting the TAL upgrade.
According to figures provided by the Ministry of Industry in Prague, Czechia imported approximately 6.5 million tons of oil in 2024, of which 42 percent came from the Druzhba (a figure down from 58 percent in the previous two years). According to the national operator Mero, Druzhba is still functioning, and operations could resume in the future, but their feasibility is currently under exam.
To date, Druzhba still supplies Hungary and Slovakia, the two most pro-Russian members of the EU, who have long been engaged in a battle with Brussels and Kyiv on supplies from Moscow.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
