Romania''s Energy Ministry is preparing the framework that will set minimum crude oil and petroleum product stock levels, and the calculation method for emergency stocks, for the period from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, Business24 reported on 12 May 2026 citing a draft reviewed by Profit.ro.
The stated objectives are predictable financing, secure storage conditions and the avoidance of a significant budgetary impact. Measures are to be introduced in stages to ease implementation, and the list of economic operators carrying the storage obligation falls from 18 to 14 as responsibility is centralised through Romania''s Central Storage Entity, ANRSPS.
Because the Central Storage Entity has told the ministry that it does not yet hold specific stocks, the draft proposes that during the 2026-27 period the minimum crude and product volumes be constituted by obligated operators exclusively in the form of emergency stocks.
Implementation is expected to run gradually over several years, with financing arranged so that stocks can be built, maintained and stored under adequate conditions. ANRSPS may begin creating stocks in stages, conditional on sufficient funding and on the technical storage capacity required being available.
The draft also targets an adjustment of the organisational structure of the obligation, with costs phased in tranches designed not to generate a material budgetary impact, and with prerequisites including the completion of repair works at storage capacities.
For traders and storage operators the direction of travel matters more than the arithmetic. Centralisation shifts a compliance cost that has sat with commercial holders towards a state entity, and changes who tenders for tank capacity in a region where emergency stock obligations have become part of the energy security debate.
