Currently, 195,000 tons of petroleum products have been acquired by the state, which constitutes about 53% of the minimum required volume of state strategic reserves, according to the Ministry of Economics' response to the Saeima commission's inquiries, as reported by LETA.
The ministry indicated that the schedule for acquiring state reserves of petroleum products is enshrined in the Energy Law — annually from 2024 to 2028, the state must acquire at least 15% of the total required volume of reserves, so that by December 31, 2028, 100% of the reserves are owned by the state. From 2024 to 2028, for the volume that is not acquired as property, services for forming reserves are purchased, that is, so-called option contracts.
The ministry explained that the fee for the service is directly determined by the total costs of creating and maintaining reserves, in which a significant share is still made up of option contracts.
As noted by the Ministry of Economics, the cost of such contracts based on the results of the 2024 procurement reached approximately 79 euros per ton per month (948 euros per ton per year). In turn, the company "Possessor" paid about 620–700 euros per ton per year for the acquisition of physical reserves of winter-grade diesel fuel into state ownership in 2024 and 2025.
With a faster acquisition of the necessary reserves into state ownership in the following years, the total costs for their formation and maintenance will be lower, as fewer option contracts will be required, and accordingly, the service fee rate can be reduced more quickly, the ministry explained.
The Ministry of Economics indicated that during the transition period from 2024 to 2028, the main part of the expenses consists of costs for purchasing petroleum products and option contracts, which, in turn, depend on market prices for petroleum products. Thus, the dynamics of the service fee rate will mainly depend on the level of prices for petroleum products in the future, the compensation required by merchants for option contracts, as well as storage costs.
As reported, on Tuesday, the government supported a fiscally neutral bill prepared by the Ministry of Finance to reduce the excise tax on diesel fuel by approximately 15% to mitigate the impact of rising fuel prices on the economy and residents.
According to the Ministry of Finance's calculations, this could lower the fuel price by about 8.6 cents per liter, including value-added tax.
According to the Ministry of Finance's proposal, the excise tax rate on diesel fuel will be reduced from 467 to 396 euros per 1000 liters.
The government also supported a reduction in the excise tax on marked diesel fuel for agriculture — from 70 to 21 euros per 1000 liters.
According to the Ministry of Finance's calculations, this could lower the price of marked diesel fuel by about 5.9 cents per liter, including VAT.
It is planned that in both cases — for regular diesel fuel and for marked diesel used in agriculture — the reduced excise tax rate will be in effect from April 1 to June 30, 2026.
