The volume of crude oil discharged at the Trieste Marine Terminal and transported by SIOT-TAL via the Transalpine Pipeline is substantially stable. In 2022, 37.2 million tons of oil were transported, a figure in line with the previous year. A total of 402 tankers docked at the Marine Terminal during the year.

The crude oil traffic trend was heavily affected by the reduced operations of the Austrian refinery served by the TAL pipeline, Schwechat, where a mechanical accident occurred on 3 June at the end of a planned maintenance phase that had affected the plant since 19 April 2022. The refinery only returned to full operation on 7 October.

“We can be satisfied with the result achieved,” commented Alessio Lilli, President of Società Italiana per l’Oleodotto Transalpino. “We have guaranteed full operation of our plants throughout the year without interruptions or unforeseen events. The traffic trend in the first half of the year was higher than in the same period of 2021, so much so that we expect to close the year returning to pre-pandemic transport levels. The reduction in demand in the second half of the year from the Austrian refinery – due to its prolonged out of service for technical reasons – can be estimated at around two million tons and is one of the main factors contributing to the lower final figure”.

As far as the origin of the crude oil transported is concerned, the main country of origin remains Kazakhstan with 30 per cent of the oil arriving at SIOT, followed by Libya (14 per cent), Azerbaijan (11 per cent), the USA (11 per cent) and Iraq (10 per cent). During 2022, SIOT-TAL received crude oil from 22 countries.

By contrast, the sanctions against Russian oil due to the conflict in Ukraine did not have an impact on SIOT – TAL operations. These only came into full effect in the second half of the year and supplies of Russian crude oil to the refineries served by the pipeline were always marginal.

” As expected, the sanctions against Russia did not affect the volumes of crude moved in the North Adriatic,” adds Lilli, “the oil market is extremely resilient and able to adapt quickly to sudden geopolitical changes”.