Interconnection of crude oil pipelines between Austria and Slovakia will not strengthen Slovakia's energy security, Karel Hirman from the Slovak Innovation and Energy Agency told the TASR newswire on October 19.
“… due to the situation that currently prevails in the crude oil supplies from Trieste to Schwechat refinery (Austria). The pipeline branch in the direction of Schwechat is currently, de facto, technologically full, which means there is no free transport capacity to Slovakia,” he explained.
According to Hirman, it is very hard to get new transport capacity. It can only be requested by a refinery or by a crude oil processor - and Slovakia is neither of these, since it does not own a refinery.
“It could only be Slovnaft in Bratislava – better said, the MOL group to which Slovnaft belongs,” he explained. Hirman thinks that this route could serve Slovakia in case of difficulties with oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline or other problems. Another obstacle in this project is the environmental issue, as the pipeline (connecting Bratislava and Schwechat) is directly adjacent to drinking water reservoirs. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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