In 2025, after ten years, the Czech Republic will do without Russian oil from the Druba pipeline. It will be one of the biggest changes to the energy map of Estonia in the last few decades. The TAL-PLUS strategic project, which MERO R is working on together with the TAL consortium, was acquired from Russian oil.
The key to the project is to expand the transport capacity of the European TAL pipeline. It supplies the Czech Republic via the western route, starting in the Italian city of Trieste, in the German Vohburg an der Donau it connects to the IKL pipeline and from there the oil goes to the Czech Central Oil Tanker in Nelahozevs.
Exceeding the transport capacity of the European TAL pipeline is the only possible way for Czechia to get rid of Russian oil. Thanks to the TAL-PLUS project, from 2025, we will gain an additional 4 million tons of oil transportation capacity via the first route. Apart from supply, they fully cover the entire domestic consumption, which is roughly 7.1 million tons of crude oil. So we won’t need Russian oil.
This extraordinary event, which has since received both media and public attention, is unfortunately accompanied by confused and false reports from time to time. The last time this happened was on April 16, 2024, in a comment by Tom Jungwirth Bezovskho, analyst of the Research Center of the Association for International Issues in Hospodské novinky. Mr. Jungwirth’s text must be taken seriously.
It is not true that “after two years of fighting, full independence will materialize on additions from Russia”. The first discussion about the TAL-PLUS project took place in 2015. It was extremely difficult to convince the entire consortium of the technological rights of the TAL pipeline and its capacity from the position of a minority shareholder (MERO R owns a five percent stake in the TAL consortium). In 2022, the wolf accelerated towards Ukraine and the year 2022, when it suddenly shifted. In 2023, it was possible to sign a contract for the complete implementation of the project.
It is not true that “MERO R finances the TAL-PLUS project from the subsidy of the National Rehabilitation Fund”. MERO R will cover all costs associated with the project exclusively from its income, i.e. without impact on the tax payer and the state budget.
Energy companies will be left out of the tensions and tensions in the world. Their shares could drop by tens of percent this year
18/04/2024 ▪ 4 minutes the
It is not true that it is a “two-billion dollar project”. Project costs are estimated to be in the range of 1.3–1.6 billion crowns, and MERO R consistently follows both the time schedule of the project and its financial fulfillment.
It is presumptuous to claim that the TAL-PLUS strategic project “will help to valorize assets jointly owned by Shell, ExxonMobil and OMV”, i.e. the company that owns the TAL consortium. One of the owners in the TAL consortium is the company MERO R (5 percent). The investment in one of the largest modernizations of the TAL pipeline, which Czech MERO is implementing with the support of the Czech government, thus enhances the assets of the Czech Republic, and therefore strengthens our energy security in the long term. The mentioned investment will only and primarily serve the needs of MERO, which is why it is being financed exclusively. MERO’s priority claim for added capacity will be subject to the introduction of capacity allocation rules between companies that have been in effect since the TAL pipeline was put into operation.
It is presumptuous to suggest that MERO R has any influence on oil purchases for Czechia. MERO R does not buy oil, it is only its transporter and operator of the IKL pipeline and the Czech Republic of the Druba pipeline.
It is necessary to state the urgency of the Czech Republic and MERO R when negotiating the TAL-PLUS project. Although the Czech Republic owns a minority stake in the TAL consortium, it managed to convince all partners that MERO’s investment in the additional capacity of the TAL pipeline will provide the Czech Republic with exclusive priority for this additional capacity for a period of at least 12 years. We consider this an unprecedented rush.
Czech independence from Russia oil with bl. All activities can be done according to the given plan. This May, they will start installing new pumps and engines, and at the end of the year, MERO R will complete the necessary technical and technological work to increase the capacity of the TAL pipeline. At the beginning of 2025, we will carry out the necessary operational tests for the external supply of oil from the fall through the IKL pipeline, we will complete safety tests and the last rights to esk oil infrastructure.
From the middle of 2025, ropn svoboda will start to supply Russian oil and the IKL pipeline will replace the supply of Russian oil from the Druba pipeline.
The author is the general editor of MERO R and the chairman of the board of the company
