The European Commission (EC) admitted that it does not know exactly and if it did, it would not have the right to report on the level of aviation fuel stocks in Europe. This was stated by the representative of the European Commission Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, commenting on the highly varying estimates of the level of aviation fuel stocks in Europe and the lack of specific figures on this topic.
"Unlike the gas or electricity market, the oil and oil products market is unregulated. That is, there is no permanent process for collecting information on the state of oil and oil product stocks in the event of a crisis. There is also a lack of transparency in the development of reserves by various players, especially for oil products. In a highly unstable political situation, this becomes even more difficult, as the situation changes every day," Itkonen said.
She claimed that "The European Commission has full estimates of how much oil our member states have", noting that the exchange of information on commercial kerosene stocks between EU countries and various market participants, including airlines, occurs constantly in the form of coordination group working meetings, the nearest of which will be held on May 7. At the same time, she acknowledged that participants in these meetings "share information voluntarily and are not obliged to do so.” "Therefore, it is not up to the European Commission to comment on how many aviation fuel companies have. This is not our competence and we do not have this confidential information," she said.
Itkonen called for a “distinction between commercial and strategic reserves of petroleum products“, stressing that EU countries and the European Commission have full information on strategic reserves, but she also did not give any specific figures. “Since no one knows how long the crisis will last, we need to be prepared for every scenario“, she said.
Itkonen also stressed that the European Commission “will present its recommendations to airlines on the use of jet fuel later this week“.
Currently, public assessments of the risk of physical shortages of the main types of aviation fuel in Europe vary significantly; different sources cite periods of 2 to 6 weeks. There is no official confirmation of this information or official statistics on the subject. At the same time, the number of canceled flights in Europe due to rising fuel prices is already in the hundreds.