About 1.6 million barrels of oil from the State’s national reserve will be released into the market in the coming weeks as part of a global effort to boost supplies in the face of the war in the Persian Gulf, an Oireachtas committee will hear on Thursday.
The National Oil Reserves Agency (Nora) is expected to tell the Dáil Public Accounts Committee that this move will leave the organisation holding in storage sufficient fuel to last for 80 days rather than 90 at present.
Nora was established in 1995 as a private limited company for the maintenance of Ireland’s strategic oil reserves.
It is understood Nora will say that at the end of March it was holding the equivalent of 1.7 million tonnes of oil or about 2.1 billion litres.
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It is expected to say it physically owns and holds 1.95 billion litres of oil reserves with the balance of 0.14 million tonnes of this supply being held by way of compulsory stock obligation tickets.
The oil reserve supply is stored is stored in several locations around Ireland as well as in terminals in other European Union countries such as Spain, Denmark, The Netherlands and Sweden.
It is expected to tell the committee that at the end of March Nora was holding almost two-thirds of its product on the island of Ireland in a combination of commercially-owned and operated oil terminals and in three facilities that the agency owns and operates itself that Nora owns and operates in its own right – at Poolbeg and Ringsend in Dublin and at Tarbert in Kerry.
It is expected to say it has direct control over the storage and release of about 320,000 tonnes of diesel and jet fuel.
[ Government to meet oil reserves agency as Gulf war escalatesOpens in new window ]
In an opening statement to the committee Nora is expected to say that in March of this year Ireland agreed to participate in the release of oil reserves proposed by the International Energy Agency.
“Ireland’s share of the agreed 400 million barrels of oil to be released is 1.61 million barrels or approximately 200,000 tonnes. Over the coming weeks the agency will move to release this stock which will see the number of days cover held by the agency fall by about 10.5 days.
“It is important to stress that the 90 days of reserve that Nora holds means that if there were no imports of oil into the country and the refinery was unable to produce any oil, then the State would have 90 days of oil supply.
“In reality, however, any supply crisis would normally only result in a certain percentage reduction in the overall supply. In a scenario where, for example, the supply of oil was cut by 20 per cent, then the 90 days of stock that Nora holds would last up to 450 days (ie 90 days by five), as the reserve is only required to meet a 20 per cent reduction in supply.”
