The priority is to avoid (further) price escalation. These are non-commercial reserves, available in times of crisis.
Portugal had a reserva of petroleum products for three months. Now that deadline has come down a little.
The president of the National Entity for the Energy Sector (ENSE), Alexandre Fernandes, said this Tuesday: “What we did was, in order not to put so much pressure on the price, reduce from 92 to around 82 dias, in other words, we reduced our reserves by 10 days”.
On the sidelines of the III Conference on Inspection and Prevention in the Energy Sector, Alexandre explained what “non-commercial reserves, available for times of crisis”.
And the priority is to contribute, “as much as possible, so that the price escalation would not be even greater”.
Already in natural gas, Portugal had reserves for around three weeks.
Pedro Verdelho, president of the Energy Services Regulatory Entity (ERSE), warned that “no one can guarantee that electricity prices will not increase.”
However, there are two signs of reassurance: the impact of the war on the electricity market is not on the scale of the impact on gas and oil; and also there is no risk of shortages.
As happened in other conflicts, the evolution of the price will depend on the evolution of the war in Iran.
Also this Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that the price of energy raw materials will rise this year.
