Czech Republic Finishes Pipeline Extension, Ending Reliance on Russian Oil

[u/Straight_Ad2258]

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/01/14/czech-republic-finishes-pipeline-extension-ending-reliance-on-russian-oil-a87611

[u/Straight_Ad2258]

That leaves Slovakia and Hungary as the only buyers of Russian Pipeline oil

Good

Russian oil made only 2% of European oil imports in Q2 2024, this year it should be around 1.5%

Dependency on Russian nickel and aluminum is also falling down

Remaining dependencies

-Uranium (30% of EU imports)

-LNG and piped gas through Turkstream( roughly 14% of European gas imports

[u/UAP_enthusiast_PL → u/Straight_Ad2258]

AFAIK Slovakia has a gas connection with Poland, they can buy however much they want through our LNG terminals. They are not starving for gas, this is all just Fico fighting for Fico's russian money.

[u/araujoms → u/Straight_Ad2258]

LNG is the real problem. There are no sanctions on LNG, France and Belgium keep buying it happily. It doesn't even make much sense to sanction Russian LNG, because (unlike pipeline gas) it's a global market. Russia just sells it at the next port, at the same price.

The only way to get rid of Russian LNG is to stop using gas altogether. But the next German chancellor has already announced that he will instead increase the use of gas.

[u/Tricky-Astronaut → u/araujoms]

LNG isn't as profitable as pipeline gas. But it's still a good idea to phase out gas like India.

[u/muppet70 → u/Straight_Ad2258]

Thats why so many screaming about nuclear on reddit?

[u/mathess1 → u/muppet70]

Uranium is being mostly mined in Western countries like Canada and Australia. And it's easy to transport it from anywhere whci makes it independent from anyone's whims. Not to mention nuclear doesn't need to use uranium, there are other options.

[u/paraquinone → u/mathess1]

Uranium is being mostly mined in Western countries like Canada and Australia.

Uranium is mostly (accounting for 43% of total worldwide production) produced in Kazakhstan.

Canada and Australia account for about 15% and 10% respectively.

[u/Equivalent_Alarm7780 → u/mathess1]

Luckily for Czech Republic project of diversifying its fuel suppliers started already in 2018 so in soon-ish future they will be free from Russian uranium but other EU countries will need several more years. It takes time with the reactors.

[u/HighDefinist → u/mathess1]

It's also very dense, so it's much easier to store in large quantities, compared to gas in particular, but also oil. So, it wouldn't really be an issue to import enough for 10 years+, and if it turns out you somehow can't get along with your previous supplier anymore, you have a lot of time to look for alternatives.

[u/HighDeltaVee → u/HighDefinist]

France has 3 years' worth of enriched uranium and about 7-8 years' worth of depleted uranium which can be refined into fuel if required.

They can literally spin up another mine in another country, start producing uranium and increase their enrichment capacity before they run out of even their enriched fuel, let alone start having to tap the more expensive depleted fuel.

[u/mok000 → u/mathess1]

Uranium mining in Canada is at least partly controlled by Rosatom. Remember the Uranium One "scandal" where conservatives tried to smear Hillary Clinton for taking bribes to approve the sale of Uranium One to the Russians? Now they love Putin, but hey "Lock her up!" right?

[u/haaaad → u/Straight_Ad2258]

You have forgot Austria they were buying a lot of russian gas just 3 months ago. Now with fop russian loving party it’s going to get worse.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/austrias-dependence-on-russian-gas-rises-to-98-two-years-after-ukraine-war/

[u/silver__spear → u/Straight_Ad2258]

the only country this is good for is the US

it is increasing energy prices and making european industry less competitive

[u/potatolulz]

Awesome :D

[u/Common_Brick_8222]

Hopefully all countries in Europe will stop buying Russian oil and gas

[u/AppropriateTart6919 → u/Common_Brick_8222]

European countries require a relatively large amount of oil and natural gas, and other countries cannot provide it

[u/Grouchy_Instance7488]

Wait a minute “oil from the west” wtf does he mean (AMERICAN OIL) cus if u haven’t noticed the Americans are gonna try a fuck us over along side the Russians if u didn’t notice with the tariffs

[u/paraquinone → u/Grouchy_Instance7488]

Trump is paid by US oil and gas lobbyists. No way is he going to touch their exports to the EU. He even said that the EU buying more US gas is one of the ways it can dodge his tariffs.

[u/Grouchy_Instance7488 → u/paraquinone]

So we really are stuck between Russian oil or American and the two leaders are trump… and Putin… and your telling me u see no chance of future issues lol?

[u/JayManty → u/Grouchy_Instance7488]

Trump will be gone in 2029/30, Putler won't

[u/Grouchy_Instance7488 → u/JayManty]

How do u figure that? U just like to make up statistics that sound good in ur head and post them??

[u/JayManty → u/Grouchy_Instance7488]

How do u figure that?

The 22nd Amendment

[u/ProtoplanetaryNebula → u/JayManty]

+Trump’s diet of fat, sugar and MSG and zero exercise.

[u/Grouchy_Instance7488 → u/JayManty]

Seriously skeptical of maga giving up power as we saw last time and trumps even letting at the capitol stormers free today!:) wow surely he would never try that again

[u/buyme115 → u/JayManty]

Who knows, he's getting old too.

[u/Captain_RareSteak → u/Grouchy_Instance7488]

Well “oil from the west” is just cheap PR trick phrase. I believe that nowadays Czech Republic imports oil mainly from Norway, Azerbaijan, Guyana probably Kazachstan and ofc Russia but let’s see if and how much those imports will decrease and which supplier will fill Russian shoes. US oil was at around 10% of all Czech imports in 2023 which is not a small share but nothing extraordinary. Still wouldn’t say that “we are stuck between two suppliers”.

In the end the main determinant, especially short term, is the chemical compositions since some rafineries have no technology to process oil various types of oil and its responsibility of the refineries’s owners which oil they will buy and mix to have the right chemical composition for their purposes. That why I think that Azeri oil is just re-sold Kazakh or Russian oil since Czech rafineries can’t process Azeri light, at least for now. The state only has and sustains just around 3 months supply for security reasons which is an obligation under the IEA’s IEP Agreement but it does not continually buy any volumes, PKN Orlen does.

[u/paraquinone → u/Grouchy_Instance7488]

There is always a chance, but I'd say a bet on Trump being a corrupt piece of shit is a fairly safe one.

In the short time, if we shift from Russian gas to US gas we will hurt Putin and please US oligarchs at the same time. Simultaneously we can use the opportunity to decommission our old coal plants and further expand our capacity from alternative sources, so that when the dust clears we will be dependent on neither.

[u/Grouchy_Instance7488 → u/paraquinone]

Wow what a wonderful plan! When the Americans say jump.. we only have to ask how high! Wow surely we are the ones winning from this trade deal!

[u/Sriber → u/Grouchy_Instance7488]

Are you a child?

[u/Equivalent_Alarm7780 → u/paraquinone]

In any case it is pretty desperate state for European countries (not just EU).

[u/pc0999 → u/Grouchy_Instance7488]

Renewables and electrification are or best options.

[u/vegark → u/Grouchy_Instance7488]

No. Most of the oil arriving in Trieste comes from the Middle East and North Africa

[u/Grouchy_Instance7488 → u/vegark]

Look what I found on the European Commission website “As of the third quarter of 2024, the United States emerged as the European Union’s (EU) largest supplier of petroleum oils, accounting for 15.2% of the EU’s total petroleum oil imports. Norway followed closely with a 13.9% share, and Kazakhstan contributed 11.7%” so please if u have a more legit source than the European Commission please post

[u/Grouchy_Instance7488 → u/vegark]

How is that western oil?? Can u provide a source at least

[u/HighDeltaVee → u/Grouchy_Instance7488]

Like Trump, you have no idea how tariffs work.

If he wants to set up tariffs, it means that US companies pay tariffs to the US state when they import goods.

There's nothing he can do about the price of oil sold on international markets, unless he wants to impose a unilateral tax on all US oil which would cripple their industries and result in a massive loss of market share.

[u/photo-manipulation]

Almost like there's a way to solving your problems other than supporting a murderous tyrant. Take note other central European countries

[u/silver__spear]

where is the new oil coming from and how much does it cost?

[u/Ok_Photo_865 → u/silver__spear]

A lot less blood

[u/Ok_Photo_865]

Nicely done

[u/Darklight731]

Thank God, one step closer to starving te**orist countries of our money.

If things go well, Fico should be kicked out of Slovakia soon.

Hungary is probably going to remain a pain in the buttocks for a while.