The Czech Republic's main oil refiner said on Saturday it was tapping state oil reserves and bringing in crude through an alternate pipeline after Russia cut deliveries to the central European state.Czech officials said on Friday the cuts would nearly halve incoming oil from Russia -- which could hurt ties already under strain after the Czechs disregarded Russian objections and signed a missile defence pact with the United States this week.
The European Union and NATO member has been quick to quell speculation the reduced deliveries are politically motivated, and refinery Unipetrol said they were the result of "technical organisational" problems in Russia.
Unipetrol board member Ivan Ottis said in a statement the company had offset the reduced deliveries with state reserves and had increased the crude volume from the TAL-IKL pipeline from the Mediterranean. "At this moment, we have the situation under control," Ottis said. "Our production is not affected in any way."
He said there would be no fuel shortages or a rise in prices in what Unipetrol said it believed would be a "short outage".
Czech officials said they have demanded an explanation from Russia for the supply cuts, and government and energy officials are scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss the situation.
The Czechs depend for most of their oil supplies on Russia, but also have an alternative link to Ingolstadt in Germany. The country of 10.4 million people has oil products reserves for over 90 days.