Česká rafinérská, the largest Czech recipient of oil via the TAL pipeline is running up monthly arrears of Kč 1.8 million after refusing to pay higher shipment tariffs. The refusal has brought it into conflict with Czech state-owned oil pipeline operator Mero, which negotiates all oil shipments via TAL on behalf of Czech customers and pays for the shipments up front. No resolution of the spat looks likely in the short term.

Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) has detained the senior manager at oil & gas concern PKN Orlen responsible for the petrochemicals sector — including the Czech firm Unipetrol, in which the Polish fim has a majority stake — over suspected corruption. According to the Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, the investigation is looking at Marek Serafin’s alleged preferential treatment of a third party and abuse of business trust.

It appears Czech government ministers have suddenly realized that state-owned refined oil products distribution and retail firm Čepro is a strategic company now that regional oil refiners are showing interest in buying into the enterprise with a unique 1,100-kilometer pipeline network for the distribution of petroleum and diesel, and 17 large storage facilities for refined fuels.

Hanoi has approved a Czech government project to aid victims of “Agent Orange” — the notorious defoliant used in the US military’s herbicidal warfare program during the Vietnam War that left some 500,000 children with birth defects and killed or maimed as many adults. At the height of the war, the Czechoslovak communist regime quietly supplied the ‘imperialist’ Americans with chemicals for the toxic mix.