The supply of aviation fuels is guaranteed by Galp until the summer period, said this Friday the Minister of Energy and Environment in Porto de Mós, in the district of Leiria.
According to the minister, the information comes from “indications from Galp’s CEO two or three days ago”.
“They have a large production, the raw material they receive comes essentially from the Atlantic and, from Galp’s point of view, we still have it for several months”, he added.
The government’s meetings with Galp and also with Repsol came to the understanding that “the situation in the Iberian Peninsula is much more comfortable than in the rest of Europe and many areas of the world”.
The Energy and Environment Minister’s tranquility extends to electricity, as there is “a lot of renewable energy – more than 80%” and, in relation to “everything that is diesel and jet [fuel]in the Iberian Peninsula, there are eight or nine refineries, one here and the rest in Spain”.
“We are in a more comfortable position, but we are not out of the impacts. The planes that arrive in Portugal are not just Spanish and Portuguese ones. If there is a shortage worldwide, of course it affects us, due to the economy and because other companies have restrictions and will not arrive here”, he acknowledged.
Maria da Graça Carvalho recalled that “the world is global, for better and for worse” and, therefore, despite Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula being “relatively better than the others, but [estamos] always subject” to the possibility of “a very big crisis happening”:
“If Lufthansa is affected, and planes from France, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world are affected, of course we will suffer,” because “we are all interconnected.”
“It’s the right way”
However, “the bet we made on renewable energy, on the production of renewable gases here, and now on SAF [combustível sustentável de aviação] – which we still don’t produce in large quantities, but which is our bet – is bearing fruit and shows that it is the right path, also regarding security from a supply point of view, when there is a crisis”, he highlighted.
On Thursday, the director of the International Energy Agency said Europe has “perhaps six more weeks of jet fuel,” warning of possible flight cancellations soon if oil supplies remain blocked.
On the same day, the Association of Airlines in Portugal said that, for now, there is no impact on the operation, but admits the possibility of flight cancellations and higher prices if the energy crisis persists.
