The Transalpine Pipeline (TAL) is a

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring u ...

pipeline A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...

, which connects

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

History

The feasibility study of the pipeline was carried out by

Bechtel Bechtel Corporation () is an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company founded in San Francisco, California in 1898, and headquartered in Reston, Virginia in the Washington metropolitan area. , the '' E ...

in 1963. The pipeline was commissioned in 1967. This time, the construction cost around US$192 million. In 1972, the pipeline was the target of a Palestine terrorist attack. In May 2023 the Czech company MERO ČR announced a $73 million expansion to the Transalpine Pipeline that would double capacity to 8 million tons of oil to the Czech Republic, requiring 20 additional pumps and the upgrade of other equipment to pump the oil to 1,500m above sea level, over the alps, with completion scheduled for the end of 2024. The object being to make the Czech Republic independent of Russian oil.

Route

The pipeline starts from the marine terminal in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

. From Trieste, the pipeline runs through the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (; Austro-Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an Independent city#Germany, independent city on the Danube, in Upper Bavaria, with 142,308 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2023). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan ...

. From Ingolstadt one pipeline runs to Neustadt an der Donau and another pipeline runs to

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

. In Vohburg, the Transalpine Pipeline is connected with the Ingolstadt-Kralupy-Litvínov pipeline, which supplies oil refineries in the Czech Republic. It could be used to reverse the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline to supply Slovakia. In Würmlach, Austria, the Adria-Wien Pipeline (AWP) branches off from the Transalpine Pipeline. It supplies the OMV refinery in

Schwechat Schwechat () is a city southeast of Vienna known for the Vienna International Airport and Schwechater beer. The city is home to the Oil refinery, refineries of the Austrian national oil company OMV. Geography Schwechat is named after the river S ...

. Through the proposed Bratislava - Schwechat Pipeline it may supply also Slovakia. In addition to the sea transport, the Pan-European Pipeline, if constructed, will supply the Transalpine Pipeline.

Technical features

The diameter of the trunkline between Trieste and Ingolstadt is . Both sections starting from Ingolstadt are with in diameter. The pipeline has ten pumping stations. The pipeline system includes tank farms in Trieste and Lenting, Germany. The capacity of the pipeline is approximately 43 million tons of crude oil per year. In 2012 the throughput of the pipeline was 34.9 million tons of crude oil.

Pipeline company

The pipeline is owned by the consortium of eight oil companies. The current shareholders are: * OMV (25%) *

Shell Plc Shell plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational petroleum, oil and natural gas, gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and second ...

(24%) *

ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...

(16%) *Ruhr Oel (11%) *

Eni Eni is an Italian oil and gas corporation. Eni or ENI may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Escuela Nacional de Inteligencia, the Argentine intelligence academy * Groupe des écoles nationales d’ingénieurs (Groupe ENI), a French engi ...

(10%) * BP (9%) * ConocoPhillips (3%) * Total S.A. (2%) The Czech unit of PKN Orlen, Unipetrol, is negotiating to buy an about 2% in the pipeline.
The shareholders of the Group include
OMV, Shell, Rosneft, ENI, C-BLUE B.V. (Gunvor), ExxonMobil, Mero, Phillips 66/Jet Tankstellen and Total.

References

External links