Portugal had 1.56 million tons of physical reserves of oil and petroleum products in the last quarter of last year. 623.9 thousand tons are stored in other countries.
The Prime Minister, Luis Montenegroannounced this Wednesday that Portugal will make available, “in principle”, 10% of strategic oil reserves so that there can be more supply and greater containment in fuel prices.
According to the map of reserves from ENSE – National Entity for the Energy Sector, of these reserves, 538 thousand tons are of crude oil, 51.4 thousand tons of gasoline, 297.8 thousand tons of diesel and 51 thousand tons of LPG and Fuel.
The aforementioned reserves are stored in various locations, including the Petrogal in Sines and Matosinhos and Companhia Logística de Combustíveis (CLC) in Aveiras.
Already 623.9 thousand tons correspond to ticketsthat is, they are stored in other countries.
What if we run out of oil?
According to information in site of ENSE, the entity “more specifically the oil reserves unit, in its capacity as Central Storage Entity [ECA]it is responsible for guaranteeing thirty days of reservations national security.”
Furthermore, “operators have the obligation to set up 90 days, with 30 days being obligatorily constituted by the ECA and being responsible for setting up the remaining 60 days in a location to be mandatorily reported to ENSE”.
On March 3, ENSE told Lusa that Portugal has reserves for 93 days of consumption, in a scenario of disruptionnoting that national imports have no exposure to Hormuz in the quantities of goods purchased and transported.
As he pointed out at the time, the situation in Hormuz will have a more structural impact on prices only if the situation continues for many weeks.
At this time there is no reason for alarmwith close monitoring only necessary in the short term, said ENSE.
“We will share with several partners on an international scale what was one of the conclusions of the G7 meeting and we will make an important part available, in principle 10%of our strategic reserves so that there can be more supply and greater containment in fuel prices”, announced Luís Montenegro, speaking to journalists.
Portugal thus joins the agreement of the member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) who decided, this Wednesday, to release a total of 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves onto the markets.
With the release of 400 million barrels of oil, more than double the agency’s previous record intervention at the start of the war in Ukraine, when it released 182 million barrels of crude oil, it is intended compensate for lost supply due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The US and Israel launched a military attack against Iran on Saturday, to “eliminate imminent threats from the Iranian regime”, and Tehran responded with missiles and drones against US bases in the region and Israeli targets.
Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz and launched retaliatory attacks against Israel, US bases and other infrastructure in countries in the region such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Oman, Iraq, Cyprus and Turkey.
