Oil derivatives from state reserves should be used if necessary, legal solution in parliamentary procedure
Skopje, 7 October 2022 (MIA) – The state is making efforts to provide energy sources for uninterrupted production of electricity and heating for the citizens in the upcoming winter, as well as to provide twice cheaper electricity for business on the open market than prices on the stock market. Authorities are reassuring citizens not to worry, adding that during the upcoming winter there will be sufficient heating and electricity supplies.
In an effort to ensure sufficient amount of energy, Economy Minister Kreshnik Bekteshi and Director General of the Power Plants of North Macedonia company (ESM), Vasko Kovachevski, are meeting on Friday with representatives of one of the gas companies put forward by VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski. The meeting, which will be held abroad, will also be attended by Viktor Andonov, the Prime Minister's energy adviser. “Details will be discussed at the meeting, having in mind that if there is such an agreement and if the details, terms and the offer are generally acceptable to ESM, it should be done by ESM with a natural gas trader. In order to prepare the meeting, we have also forwarded the required quantities and needs of North Macedonia, including the needs of TE-TO, which produces electricity, and also produces heating energy as a by-product, about 60 percent of the heating energy for the city of Skopje,” Minister Bekteshi said on Thursday. He noted that by the end of the week a meeting should also be held with another company put forwards by the opposition for the procurement of mazut, reassuring citizens not to worry because there will be sufficient heating and electricity supply. Meanwhile, a group of MPs from the ruling parties proposed to the Parliament a draft-law supplementing the Law on Mandatory Oil Reserves, in a fast-tracked procedure, which amends the provisions of the Law on Mandatory Oil Reserves towards facilitating the handling of the current energy crisis. Namely, an additional solution is proposed which should enable oil derivatives from the mandatory reserves to be put into operation, i.e. to issue short-term loans and/or to cede, without compensation, certain oil derivatives from the mandatory reserves to certain users, i.e. to public companies and other legal entities and institutions established by the state that perform appropriate energy activities. This, the group of MPs says, will contribute to easier handling of the current energy crisis situation, and will be applied until the day of the country's accession to the European Union. According to the group of MPs proposing the draft-law, the mandatory reserves of oil derivatives can be used amid a declared crisis in the supply of heating in the area of the City of Skopje and in the supply of electricity across the country when there is an urgent need for oil derivatives by public enterprises and other legal entities and institutions established by the state. “The ceded oil derivatives may be in quantities that, during the calendar year, will not exceed 50 percent of the total stored quantities of mandatory reserves for each oil derivative separately,” the group of MPs adds. According to them, the Government is to decide on the users, delivery costs, the type, quantities and the purpose of the oil derivatives that are loaned and/or ceded without compensation, as well as the deadline for returning the borrowed quantities. However, there’s no information when the Parliament will discuss the draft-law, and its next session is scheduled for October 17.
