Latest news with #JaroslavPantucek
Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Ukraine claims attack on key hub for Russian oil pipelines
Ukraine claimed a strike on an important hub for Russia's network of crude-exporting pipelines, though flows from the system to Europe seem to remain uninterrupted for now. A worker stands at the oil tank terminal of the state-run company MERO, which transports crude oil and protects the strategic crude oil reserves of the Czech Republic, on June 17, 2025 in Nelahozeves, near Kralupy nad Vltavou. The Czech Republic has phased out Russian oil in a painstaking process taking much longer than the three years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, its mastermind Jaroslav Pantucek, CEO and board chairman of Mero said. (Photo by Michal Cizek / AFP)(AFP) The attack on an oil-pumping station in Unecha caused damage and a large-scale fire in the area of the facility in Russia's Bryansk region, near the border with Ukraine and Belarus, the General Staff in Kyiv said in a Facebook post. Explosions were heard in the storage area and where the main and support pumps are located, according to the statement. It wasn't possible to independently verify Ukraine's claims on the Unecha strike. Russian oil-pipeline operator Transneft PJSC didn't immediately respond to a Bloomberg request for comment. The strike is the latest in a flurry of intensified drone attacks on Russian oil and gas infrastructure this month, ahead of a meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday. Earlier this month Ukraine hit four Russian refineries, with operations at three plants owned by oil giant Rosneft PJSC being disrupted. On Tuesday, Ukraine said it attacked a key helium plant in Russia. The Unecha station is a key facility of the Druzhba pipeline network, through which Russia sends its crude to Hungary and Slovakia, and transits Kazakh oil to Germany. The station is also part of the Baltic Pipeline System-2, a link that takes Russian crude to the port of Ust-Luga, the country's second-largest oil-export facility on the Baltic Sea. 'Crude oil deliveries are on schedule,' Hungarian refiner Mol Nyrt. told Bloomberg on Wednesday, while the country's foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, condemned the attack in a Facebook statement. Slovak pipeline operator Transpetrol said that so far there's no record of any request 'to change the approved current monthly schedule' for crude flows via the Druzhba link. The flows of Kazakh oil through the Transneft system is being carried out as normal, without restrictions on the acceptance of oil from shippers, the country's energy ministry said by email. The Bryansk region's governor, Alexander Bogomaz, said in a Telegram post that a fire broke out at a fuel infrastructure facility in the Unecha district as a result of Ukrainian rockets and drones attack. The fire has been put out, he added, without providing further details on potential damage.
Malay Mail
27-06-2025
- Business
- Malay Mail
How Czechs quit Russian oil without getting a black eye
NELAHOZEVES, June 28 — Holding a black belt in karate, Jaroslav Pantucek, the man in charge of Czech oil pipelines, is not afraid of tough battles. Like the ones he had to fight to wean the central European country off Russian oil in March, after more than 60 years of reliance and under EU pressure following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. 'I have completed my mission,' Pantucek, the chief executive and board chairman of the state-run Mero firm, told AFP in an interview. Until March, the EU and Nato member of 10.9 million people relied largely on the Druzhba pipeline taking Russian oil to Europe via Ukraine. When the EU moved to end its reliance on Russian fossil fuels after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Druzhba was exempted because the Czechs had few other options — though they had been working on alternatives for decades. Across the EU, Russian oil imports have shrunk from 27 per cent at the beginning of 2022 to three per cent now, European Commission data showed. 'Blackmail potential' Former Czechoslovakia — comprising today's Czech Republic and Slovakia — got connected to Druzhba in the 1960s when it was part of the Soviet bloc. But faltering supplies following the fall of the communist government in 1989 and the split of the country four years later led Prague to rethink the source. 'The first government after the (1989) revolution was already aware of the blackmail potential of Russian oil,' said Pantucek, who is 65. He joined Mero in 1997, a year after the launch of the IKL pipeline, an alternative route bringing in oil via Germany. 'I came to the job interview with a very decent black eye' from karate, chuckled Pantucek. He was already the chief executive when Druzhba suddenly curbed supplies to the Czech Republic in 2008. 'Moscow insists it was a coincidence,' Pantucek said, but he drew a link between the move and US plans to build a radar south of Prague, a thorn in Moscow's side that never materialised. The drop in supplies led Mero to consider joining a consortium running the Transalpine Pipeline (TAL) connecting the Italian port of Trieste with the IKL pipeline. 'We bought a 5-per cent stake after three years of tough talks in December 2012. It was a great success,' said Pantucek. But Prague wanted more and started planning a capacity boost that would make it even less dependent on Druzhba. Pantucek was dismissed from Mero in 2015, but he returned shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, resuming work on the TAL expansion at once. 'I felt there was no time to waste, that the moment when oil stops flowing may be near,' he said. 'Historic moment' The Czechs needed the 60-year-old TAL pipeline to run at maximum capacity for the first time ever to ensure they got the annual eight million tonnes they need. They had to persuade partners in the consortium to change the capacity-sharing rules, unchanged for decades, and adjust the regime for tankers bringing oil to Trieste. 'That was a massive mental clash,' Pantucek said. Mero offered cutting-edge pumps that reduced power consumption and maintenance costs, and got a go-ahead to draft a contract — a process that took seven months as the consortium members kept tweaking it. Czech refineries meanwhile had to adapt to non-Russian oil mixtures with lower sulphur content, currently comprising oil from Azerbaijan, the North Sea, Saudi Arabia or Iraq. The expansion swallowed 42 million euros-worth of Mero's money. 'We were pushing to have everything ready by the end of 2024,' Pantucek added. 'Druzhba never worked 24/7, in fact it was off pretty often. But I had a gut feeling that it may stop completely. And somebody up there helped us I guess.' On March 3 this year, Pantucek had a call from TAL confirming operation readiness after thorough tests. 'On March 4, I came to work and my colleagues told me Druzhba was off. And I said, look, this is a historic moment.' Pantucek is leaving his future at Mero open as he has reached retirement age and the political situation may change after October's general election. 'I can take it easy now,' he said. 'I've done my job.' — AFP
