Slovenia has become the first European Union member state to bring in fuel rationing as a way of managing disruption to global supply caused by the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n
Energy prices around the world have been in turmoil since the United States and Israel began their attacks, which have caused Iran to shut down the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane \u2014 one of the busiest and most important for global fuel supplies.<\/p>\n
Slovenia, at the north end of the Adriatic Sea and bordered by Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia, has experienced an upsurge in so-called fuel tourism, especially from Austria, where petrol is significantly more expensive, as people drive into the country specifically to take advantage of its regulated, lower prices.<\/p>\n
Individual fuel retail companies in some countries, including Hungary, have already imposed purchase limits, but Slovenia, where the general public will be limited to a maximum purchase of 50 liters per day, or 200 liters for commercial and agricultural use, is the first place where rules have been set by the government, although it insists this is a precautionary, rather than a panic measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me reassure you that there is enough fuel in Slovenia,\u201d said Prime Minister Robert Golob. \u201cThe warehouses are full and there will be no fuel shortages.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, European Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen has sent a letter to EU member states, which has been seen by the Euronews website, encouraging them to start refilling gas reserves earlier than usual to avoid pressure on supply, and subsequent rising prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still in the early stages of the storage injection season, but it is essential that we start our preparations in time for next winter and in a coordinated manner,\u201d said the letter, dated March 20.<\/p>\n
He added that the bloc\u2019s supply security was \u201crelatively protected\u201d as imports from Qatar, through the Strait, are of limited reliance for EU countries, but Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, CEO of QatarEnergy, has already warned that his company will not be able to fulfill contractual supply obligations, which will have a ripple effect on global markets, impacting European supplies and prices.<\/p>\n
Citing lessons learned following the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022, Jorgensen urged countries to take advantage of adjusted refilling targets, which can now be reached over a longer period of time than before.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis flexibility can help reduce the gas demand at times when the supply is tense and ease the pressure on gas prices in Europe,\u201d he said, adding \u201cwe have also learned the pitfalls of uncoordinated action\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the United Kingdom, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves Tuesday has vowed to deliver economic support to British \u201cwho need it most\u201d if energy bills rise and the government has begun contingency planning for \u201cevery eventuality\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Slovenia has become the first European Union member state to bring in fuel rationing as a way of managing disruption to global supply caused by the US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Energy prices around the world have been in turmoil since the United States and Israel began their attacks, which have caused Iran to shut down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}