Heating oil is not enough to replace gas

Croatian companies have felt the energy shortage they were counting on in a harsh way. Some of them, who could technically do so, switched to heating oil. As the gas storage facility Okoli is increasingly ‘drying up’ every day, questions arise: how much heating oil is still available in the country, can it still be produced or perhaps imported.

The only producer of heating oil in Croatia is Ina, and it is produced as the last product in oil refining. Ina claims that they currently have enough heating oil for Croatian needs. – The average stocks of heating oil in Ina are sufficient for one month of HEP’s operations, without additional production. However, Ina continuously produces heating oil and based on monthly orders, continuously meets the expressed needs of HEP. The stocks of heating oil are sufficient to meet the current demand of our customers, and heating oil can be imported, in accordance with Croatian regulations.

Consumers themselves assess which energy source they will use in their production. Heating oil is an adequate energy source for many consumers, but due to the unrealistically low price of gas in Croatia, which is far from the market price, there is enormous demand for gas in Croatia. If the price of gas were balanced in relation to other energy sources, then the consumption of all energy sources would be more uniform. It is also certain that in a situation of more uniform energy use, this current problem with the supply of Russian gas would be milder – explained Ina. But the question arises what will happen when all the gas stocks from Okoli are consumed and at the same time the demand for electricity and heating oil increases. Experts in the oil and gas business explain that at such a moment when half of Europe suffers from gas shortages, there is no one to import heating oil from.

– Bulgaria has so far been a major exporter of heating oil, but they have banned exports due to the current situation. In other words, heating oil cannot save us – explained Jasmnko Umičević from Oil&Gas Consulting. While domestic politicians are trying to procure gas in North Africa, and plan to appear at the summit in Moscow this weekend, stocks of gas are slowly disappearing in Croatia, and the consumption of heating oil has also increased. If Russian gas does not arrive soon, the Okoli storage will remain empty, and a good part of the population will have to heat with electricity, which we again partially import. In the end, it turns out that heating oil, which many use as an alternative to gas, is not a permanent but only a temporary solution and that we will struggle to last long without gas. (Ante Livajić)