For years, Croatia has struggled for its oil/petroleum products reserves to reach three-month consumption, but as it is not good for the state to have too few oil reserves, it is also bad when they accumulate above the legally prescribed quantities.
State Secretary at the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development Ivo Maletic said that, at the moment, Croatia has oil stocks that correspond to quantities it imports in 110 days on average, which is significantly more than mandatory 90 days reserves.
Mandatory stocks of oil and petroleum products are formed at least in the amount of 90 days of average daily net imports or 61 days of average daily domestic consumption of petroleum products in the previous calendar year, whichever is higher. As the average daily import in Croatia was higher, the Hydrocarbons Agency (AZU) must have stocks that correspond to the average import for 90 days. Milatic explained that higher oil stocks were the result of reduced activity due to the pandemic, and estimated that stocks could soon return to 93 days of average imports, due to increased activity in the economy, but also travel, especially tourism.
