The European Union does not expect immediate impact from the fresh Middle East conflict on the security of oil and gas supply in the bloc, the European Commission said Wednesday, even amid a stoppage of flows from the Druzhba oil pipeline.
This was the assessment of the Commission and EU countries at separate meetings of the Gas Coordination Group and the Oil Coordination Group on Wednesday morning, the Commission said in an online statement.
“Since the meeting of the Oil Coordination Group of 25 February, no additional oil stocks have been released and remain at high level”, the Commission said. “Gas storage filling levels in the EU remain stable”.
“In case of a prolonged closure of the strait of Hormuz or further disruptions, the EU security of oil and gas supply will be reassessed”, it added.
At the earlier meeting of the Oil Coordination Group, it was agreed, according to a Commission statement February 26, that there were no “immediate security of supply risks” from the halt of flows to Hungary and Slovakia from Ukraine’s section of the Druzhba pipeline from Russia.
EU members Hungary and Slovakia have accused Ukraine of blocking the pipeline, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted the pipeline remains damaged, according to reports from Russian state news agency TASS and Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform.
“Hungary and Slovakia have released some of their emergency oil stocks, which they hold in reserve, and increased the use of alternative supplies”, the Commission said in the February 26 statement. “Emergency stocks of oil and/or petroleum products are kept by all EU countries to manage such situations.
“Hungary and Slovakia have also relied on the supply of non-Russian crude oil via the Adria pipeline from Croatia. Croatia confirmed that additional cargoes contracted by MOL Group and transporting non-Russian crude oil are inbound for Croatia’s oil terminal in Omisalj, ensuring that security of oil supply is maintained in Hungary and Slovakia going forward”.
Meanwhile the latest update on the monitoring dashboard of the European Network Transmission System Operators for Gas shows that as of Tuesday, EU gas storage facilities were 29.76 percent full with 340 terawatt hours. The data showed that the EU’s daily withdrawal rate exceeded its injection rate by 1,457.93 gigawatt hours per day.
On Wednesday, Qatar – which according to Commission data is the EU’s third-biggest supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – declared force majeure on its LNG operations. QatarEnergy announced the invocation in a brief statement on its website.
On Monday QatarEnergy announced, “Due to military attacks on QatarEnergy’s operating facilities in Ras Laffan Industrial City and Mesaieed Industrial City in the State of Qatar, QatarEnergy has ceased production of liquefied natural gas and associated products”.
On Tuesday it said it was “stopping the production of some downstream products in the State of Qatar, including urea, polymers, methanol, aluminum and other products”.
To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com
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