Presentation
The 1973/74 and 1978/79 oil crises impressed upon the main oil-importing economies the need to take steps in order to mitigate the effects of major oil-supply disruptions.
As a response, the International Energy Agency was instituted within the OECD and common rules on supply security were later adopted by the European Union. Both have in common
the stipulation that mandatory stocks of petroleum and petroleum-products are to be maintained by the member-countries, so that they can be released in the event of a considerable
supply crisis.
EGREP, E.P.E. follows the model most widely adopted by OECD countries in order to ensure compliance with compulsory stock obligations, namely, a state agency who maintains the whole or part of such stocks. It is the model elected, among others, by Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands and Spain. In some countries, such as Germany, Ireland and The Netherlands, the agency is responsible for the whole of the emergency reserves; others, like France, Portugal and Spain, split the obligation between the agency and the industry.
EGREP is a public corporate entity whose role is to build up and maintain the “strategic” portion of the emergency stocks of petroleum and petroleum-products. This service is financed through a levy charged to oil-sector operators based on the volume of oil-products they introduce in the market.
EGREP aims at balancing its budget, in accordance with the prevailing model throughout the European Union. This not-for-profit nature was formally mandated by the recent European directive on emergency stocks, due to be transposed into national law no later than the 31st of December 2012.
