The Czech Republic has announced its readiness to invest in Druzhba to supply oil to Slovakia
On March 18, the Czech Republic expressed its willingness to invest in the Druzhba pipeline to guarantee oil supplies to Slovakia. As reports Reuters, this was stated by the country’s Minister of Industry Karel Havlicek.
Slovakia, together with Hungary, since the end of January has been left without Russian oil supplies through Ukrainian territory as Kyiv repairs damage to the Druzhba pipeline after a Russian strike.
Last year, the Czech Republic stopped using Russian supplies through the Druzhba after the expansion of the TAL pipeline, which runs from Italy to Germany and then connects to other pipelines. Prague has previously mentioned the possibility of reverse use of the Czech section of the Druzhba pipeline towards Slovakia.
“We have offered Slovakia the possibility of using reverse oil flow in the Druzhba pipeline.” In other words, we are ready to start investing in technical measures so that oil can be supplied from the Czech Republic to Slovakia,” Havlicek said after a meeting in Prague with Slovak Economy Minister Denisa Sakova.
According to Havlicek, the initial investment will amount to up to 1 billion Czech crowns, which is equal to 47 million dollars.
The ministers noted that in emergency mode, Slovakia will be able to receive tens of thousands of tons of oil every month in this way, and over the next 2-3 years, annual capacity could increase to 2-3 million tons.
