The draft law on the transposition of Directive 2018/1581 of the European Commission, a directive that will amend Law 85 of 2018 on Romania’s mandatory crude oil reserves, was approved on Wednesday in the Government meeting, said the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu.

“Today (Wednesday), in the Government meeting, we approved the draft law regarding the transposition of Directive 2018 per 1581 of the European Commission, a directive that will amend Law 85 per 2018 of Romania’s mandatory crude oil reserves. In practice, we are transposing the EU directive. We requested an emergency procedure from the Parliament in order to be approved as quickly as possible, Romania being in an initial delay procedure. Practically, the directive modifies the method of calculating stocks, storage obligations, each member state having an obligation of storing energy reserves, of crude oil reserves,” said the minister at the end of the Government meeting, according to Agerpres.

He stressed that uniformity is being established at the level of the European Union, in the sense that the minimum stocks are established at the latest on July 1 of each calendar year and are maintained continuously for a period of 12 calendar months until June 30 of the following year.

The Minister of Energy added that it is “an operation in the establishment and monthly verification of the number of days of fulfilling the storage obligation and the disposition of operative measures to complete the minimum level of stocks, if necessary, as well as the increase to 1,000 tons of the threshold to which the obligation to establish and maintain the stock is introduced.”

“It is a mandatory law that is part of the ongoing concern of the Government regarding the provision of Romania’s stocks of crude oil and petroleum products and it is an obligation as a member state in the European Union,” said Virgil Popescu.