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 percent at the beginning of 2022 to three percent 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-percent 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 sixty-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/RSS
