Participation of Agency at the meetings of the International Energy Agency
On 20-th and 21-st March 2017 two representatives of the Emergency Oil Stock Agency participated in meetings of the working groups of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris - Standing Group on Oil Markets (SOM) and Standing Group on Emergency Questions (SEQ).
The main theme of the SOM meeting was particularly the current situation in global oil markets, with reference to developments of oil prices in previous years and the assumption of their development in the coming years. While the price of crude oil decreased by 20 USD / bbl in the year 2015, price developments in 2016 erased almost all of the loss and the year 2016 ended exactly at the same price level as in 2014, i.e. 56 USD / bbl. Subject of discussion was largely the anticipated development of consumption of crude oil and petroleum products in the short and long term until 2040, while countries as China and India will be responsible for almost half of the growth in demand at that time.
At the SEQ meeting the Secretariat presented progress in solving the issue of emergency stocks storage in countries that are not part of the OECD with the subsequent possibility to include such stocks into emergency stocks commitment towards IEA and also the progress in the creation of so-called "Oil umbrella" concept with aim of including countries that are not members of the IEA into system of protection against unexpected crude oil supply disruptions.
The IEA Secretariat presented the progress in the effort to modify the IEA in-depth review (IDR) and its alignment with emergency response review (ERR). It is expected that at the turn of year 2017/2018 combined inspections will be launched.
Special portion was dedicated to the evaluation of member states ERRs (Finland, Sweden and Germany) together with presentation of mid-term reviews of the Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Ireland. This topic has been very beneficial for the reason that the Slovak Republic will begin with the preparation for a mid-term review at the end of 2017, following the ERR accomplished in 2015.