Kralupy nad Vltavou, 20 June 2023 – Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura visited the Central Oil Tank Farm in Nelahozeves today. Together with Jaroslav Pantůček, CEO of MERO ČR, and other members of the Company’s management, he discussed the provision of crude oil supplies to the Czech Republic, the Company’s business performance and the strategic investment of CZK 1.6 billion in the TAL-PLUS project. The Ministry of Finance is the sole shareholder of MERO ČR, a state-owned company which distributes crude oil to the Czech Republic.
“I am happy to see that MERO ČR has maintained its business stability and that the new team of senior executives managed to increase the Company’s net profit by CZK 70 million to achieve CZK 788 million last year, mainly thanks to the appropriately set conservative approach as part of increasing the value of available funds,” said Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura and added:
“As the Czech Republic enhances its energy security, MERO ČR has launched a strategic investment of CZK 1.6 billion in the TAL-PLUS project. This is an expansion of the capacity of the Transalpine Pipeline. Thanks to this, the Czech Republic will get 4 million tonnes of extra crude oil per year from 2025 and our country will be completely independent of oil supplies from Russia. I consider it very important that this investment will not burden the state budget in any way and will be fully covered by the revenues of MERO ČR,” said Zbyněk Stanjura.
Finance Minister’s visit to Nelahozeves today also included a tour of the Central Oil Tank Farm facilities, including the control centre and technical infrastructure.
“Today’s meeting with Minister Stanjura covered important topics such as the business performance of MERO ČR and, above all, our future strategic development projects. We presented to the Minister our current business results and especially our plans for the next period, including specific planned technological and process innovations. With them, we want to continue to save costs and raise more funds for capital projects.
I also confirmed to the Minister that all the money for the TAL-PLUS strategic investment will be paid by MERO ČR and we will not have any financial demands on the state budget as we expand the Transalpine Pipeline capacity,” added Jaroslav Pantůček, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of MERO ČR.
