site.btaBulgaria Has the EU's Tenth Smallest Emergency Oil Stocks in July

Bulgaria had the EU's tenth smallest emergency oil stocks in July, according to new statistics released by Eurostat Tuesday. It totaled 993,400 t of petroleum products and crude oil, up from 955,500 t a month earlier.

That was below both the new and the old reserve requirements.

In July 2021, the reserves reached 965,500 t. 

Smaller reserves are reported in Slovakia (792,600 t), Luxembourg (718,600 t), Croatia (595,400 t), Lithuania (575,600 t), Slovenia (517,000 t), Cyprus (512,900 t), Latvia (314,300 t), Estonia (251,000 t) and Malta (92.860 t).

The countries with the largest stocks of oil and petroleum products were Germany (23.2 million t), France (15 million t) and Spain (14.1 million t).

Bulgaria's commercial oil stocks in July were 535,400 t, down from 668,800 t in the previous month, but still up from 579,700 t in July 2021.

EU legislation requires member states to maintain minimum emergency stocks of crude oil and petroleum products. At any time of the year, these stocks must be equal to at least 90 days of a country's average daily net imports, or 61 days of its average daily domestic consumption, whichever is greater.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, the Eu members were twice - in March and April - allowed to make emergency releases from the emergency stocks in order to stabilize the market. The reported historic low in oil stocks in June reflects the above releases.