Sufficient fuel reserves in Romania
Romanian authorities promise they have sufficient fuel supplies to deal with any major crisis, in the context of the conflict in the Middle East
Sorin Iordan, 05.03.2026, 14:00
International crude oil prices rose steeply after Israel and the US attacked Iran, which affected the transport of oil products from the Persian Gulf. In this context, a scenario was circulated in Romania, according to which fuel prices could reach the threshold of RON 10 per litre, if the barrel price were to exceed USD 120.
However, Romania, has enough fuel reserves to deal with any major supply crisis, the energy minister Bogdan Ivan told Radio Romania. He said the country can last about half a year without imports or domestic production:
Bogdan Ivan: “We have stocks confirmed at 3.2 million tonnes of fuels in technical stocks and safety reserves. This means that, even if we did not refine any amount of in Romania and did not import a single molecule of fuel, we would still have enough stocks to meet Romania’s needs for 5 months. At present, we produce double the amount of petrol we use and around 60% of the amount of diesel we use. The balance is, obviously, imported.”
As regards imports, the minister explained that nearly 20% of the petrol and diesel demand in Romania is covered from Saudi Arabia, and supplies are not disrupted by the war, as the fuels are brought in via the Suez Canal, and not via the Strait of Hormuz, which is in the conflict zone. He also said that currently, only slightly over 25% of the oil refined in Romania is extracted domestically. The rest comes from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Yemen and Turkey. According to Bogdan Ivan, diversifying supply sources is one of the measures that Bucharest has taken to contain the impact of security developments on the domestic petrol and diesel prices.
The energy minister also said the government and the Competition Council are doing their best to prevent the speculative raising of retail prices as a result of stock market developments. Thus, Ivan explained, in the case of natural gas, even if the price in international stock exchanges has increased by almost 60%, Romanians will not be affected by the increase. He added that the government has already prepared the legal framework that allows people’s bills to stay at their current level:
Bogdan Ivan: “We will pass a government order capping basic prices throughout the supply chain, from producers to transporters, distributors, suppliers, so that prices will not exceed the current RON 0.31 per kwh. I want to be very clear, I still see panic-inducing news everywhere in the media that the price will double; yes, it doubled in stock exchanges yesterday, but in Romania we have taken a measure that we will pass in the government under which the price for households in Romania will not increase at least until April 2027.”
Amid current price volatility, the Confederation of Authorised Operators and Transporters in Romania calls on the government to cut excise duties on diesel and petrol by at least half. The Romanian state collects approximately 56% of the price of a litre of fuel in taxes, excise duties and VAT. (AMP)
