The ongoing diversification of oil and gas imports is significantly enhancing fuel security in Czechia
One of the most notable recent developments in the Czech energy sector is the diversification oil and gas imports.
In 2022, more than half of Czechia’s crude oil imports came from a single source: Russia, via the Druzhba pipeline. This made the country especially vulnerable to supply disruptions, which occurred on several occasions following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – sometimes requiring the release of emergency oil reserves to keep Czechia’s two refineries operational.
Concerns about further oil supply disruptions led to an intensification of efforts to expand the capacity of an alternative crude oil supply source: the TAL-IKL pipeline, which delivers crude oil to Czechia from the Italian port of Trieste. An expansion of this pipeline was completed in early 2025, allowing Czechia’s refineries to source crude oil from a broader range of international suppliers and enabling the country to completely end Russian crude oil imports by April 2025.
Czechia’s dependence on Russian natural gas has historically been even greater than its dependence on Russian oil; prior to 2022, virtually all the natural gas consumed in Czechia was imported from Russia. But after developing a more diversified portfolio of suppliers, Czechia also succeeded in phasing out Russian gas imports earlier this year.
This was achieved by increasing pipeline imports from Norway and by the acquisition of capacity at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the Netherlands (Eemshaven) by ČEZ Group and Czechia’s Ministry of Industry & Trade (MIT). The recent acquisition of capacity at another LNG import terminal (Stade in Germany) will enable Czechia to diversify its gas imports even further by facilitating imports from a variety of global LNG suppliers.