UK Confirms Receipt of EU Warning on Oil Stocks Cover

A spokesman for the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry said that the country had broken European Union regulations requiring 67.5 days of reserve oil, but had rectified the situation.

Late last year, the DTI received a letter from the European Union’s Commission for Energy warning that the country had dipped below reserve levels. Each country in the EU has to maintain 90 days of oil on hand in case of an emergency, but as an oil producer the UK is required to keep less.

Nevertheless, high oil prices and high storage costs led large oil refiners and producers in the UK to sell oil, the DTI spokesman said. The DTI is now reorganizing its entire system for keeping oil stocks, the spokesman said.
“We have been in compliance (with EU regulations on oil reserve levels) for several months now,” he said. “But we are also changing the entire system around to prevent buffer stocks from running down.”
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