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Interrupted Supply of Russian Crude Oil via the Druzhba Oil Pipeline to the Czech Republic

The TAL consortium, of which the Czech Republic owns a 5% share through the company MERO ČR, received an operating permit from the Bavarian government, which will increase the total capacity of the TAL crude oil pipeline to the level of roughly half of the current supplies from the Druzhba crude oil pipeline to the Czech Republic.

With deep sorrow we announce that on 23 February 2022, Mr. Jaroslav Kocián, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of MERO ČR, a.s., suddenly passed away at the age of 59.

On 22 February 2022, exactly 60 years will have passed since the Druzhba crude oil pipeline was officially put into operation in the then Czechoslovakia. In 1962 it reached Bratislava, and in 1965 it was extended to Záluží u Mostu.

In the early hours of today, 15 November 2021, operation of the Druzhba crude oil pipeline, which transports Russian REB crude oil to the Czech Republic, resumed. The crude oil pipeline was shut down for more than a week due to the relocation of the pipeline due to the construction of the Církvice bypass.

On 18 October 2021, an extensive exercise of units of the integrated rescue system (IRS) took place at the central oil tank farm, the intention of which was to test the readiness of the units of the Fire and Rescue Service of the Central Bohemian Region and other IRS units, as well as part of the external emergency plan for the emergency planning zone of the central oil tank farm.

Kralupy nad Vltavou 23 September 2021 – Today, MERO ČR, a.s. ČR, a.s., the operator of oil pipelines in the Czech Republic, organized the largest safety exercise in its history for protecting critical infrastructure.

Twenty-five years ago, the operation of the IKL oil pipeline officially started at the central oil tank farm, which connecting the tank farm in Nelahozeves to the Western European oil pipeline network. Three decades later, during which oil was transported to the Czech Republic exclusively by the Druzhba oil pipeline from the former Soviet Union, today’s Russian Federation, the Czech Republic gained an alternative route.

MERO ČR, a.s. won a competition organized by the International Association of Oil Transporters (IAOT) in the field of efficiency of electricity consumption in transportation in 2019. The results took into account the efficiency of electricity consumption for the previous period 2017-2019.

MERO ČR, a.s. has completed the construction of a new large-capacity storage tanks, which can hold up to 125 thousand m3 of oil. The new storage tank was built on the premises of the central oil tank farm, where sixteen above-ground storage tanks have been built over the years. With the successful completion of the seventeenth storage tank marked H13, the capacity of the tank farm increased to a total of 1,675,000 m3.

On 31 July 2019, the General Director of the Fire and Rescue Service of the Czech Republic Maj. Gen. Drahoslav Ryba and members of the Board of Directors of MERO ČR, a.s. Jaroslav Kocián and Otakar Krejsa signed a collaboration agreement for the period 2019-2028.