Czech has enough oil for next weeks if pipeline stays shut, operator says
The Czech Republic’s pipeline company MERO said on Wednesday it had sufficient reserves of oil crude for the next weeks in case of no further fuel coming into the country.
Speaking at Mero's central oil tank farm in Nelahozeves, the company's executive technical director Zdenek Dudr said about one million tonnes of oil was stored in steel tanks.
The farm is used for the storage of strategic emergency oil reserves, as well as the short-term intermediate storage for oil transported by the Druzhba and IKL oil pipelines.
On Tuesday, Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft said pipeline flows had been suspended to parts of central Europe because Western sanctions prevented the payment of transit fees from Moscow to Ukraine.
Hungarian group MOL said on Wednesday oil was again flowing through the southern branch of the Druzhba, or Friendship, pipeline, that it had reached Slovakia and should reach Hungary on Thursday. Oil flows, however, are not expected to resume to the Czech Republic.
"We still don't have any signal that the flow will be renewed," Dudr said.
The Druzhba suspension drove up oil prices, which have already surged along with those for other forms of energy, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine has raised concerns of shortages, especially in Europe, which largely depends on Russian fuel.