Conclusions from the Agency's control activities in 2022
The control activity of the Agency is primarily aimed at verifying the amount of emergency stocks of crude oil and petroleum products (hereinafter referred to as "emergency stocks"), which are stored for the Agency by recognized stock keepers in their storage facilities based on the relevant storage contracts. The aim of the control is mainly to verify that recognized stock keepers maintain emergency stocks in sufficient quantity and satisfactory quality. Controls are carried out in accordance with Act No. 218/2013 Coll. on Emergency stocks of oil and petroleum products and on dealing with state of oil emergency and on the amendments and supplements of certain acts as amended, the Statutes of the Agency, concluded contractual relations and internal regulations of the Agency with the aim of ensuring that emergency stocks are continuously available and ready to be used in state of oil emergency.
In accordance with the Agency's internal regulations, the amount of emergency stocks is controlled by the Agency's employees as follows:
quarterly checks - checks carried out in the months of March, June, September and December, which are carried out physically in the premises of the stock keeper,
monthly checks - evidence checks carried out in the other months of the year are carried out on the basis of documents in the form of electronic data transfer from measuring devices of individual storage tanks received from the stock keeper.
The quality of emergency stocks of crude oil is checked in monthly intervals and the quality of petroleum products has been checked twice a year as a standard by taking samples from each storage tank and carrying out qualitative analysis in an accredited laboratory. The purpose of the qualitative analysis was to verify that the individual qualitative parameters of the stored stocks meet the requirements of the relevant technical standards, so that the emergency stocks, in the event of their release, could be directly used to ensure the supply of crude oil and petroleum products for the economy and population of the Slovak Republic.
The control activities carried out by the Agency in the area of maintaining emergency stocks in 2022 demonstrated the following:
1. All emergency stocks owned by the Agency maintained by recognized stock keepers are of satisfactory quality in accordance with the requirements of the relevant technical standards. Emergency stocks are thus constantly ready to be used in the need to solve the state of oil emergency.
2. Emergency supplies are continuously available and ready for immediate release.
3. Emergency stocks are maintained in the structure prescribed by legislation and stock keeping contracts. The ratio between reserves of crude oil and petroleum products is within the range allowed by legislation.
4. Recognized stock keepers maintain emergency stocks in the prescribed quantity on the basis of storage contracts concluded between the Agency and recognized stock keepers. The Agency thus fulfills its legal obligations and the Slovak Republic fulfills its international obligations in the field of oil safety.