On Monday, Romania's Ministry of Energy declared a crisis situation regarding the supply of crude oil, allowing the extraction of significant amounts of oil and diesel fuel from the national reserves. This was prompted by contamination detected at a Turkish terminal.

According to Romania Journal, the crisis was triggered by an incident at the Ceyhan terminal, where a batch of oil from Azerbaijan destined for the Petrobrazi refinery was contaminated.

The operator of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, BTC Pipeline, reported corrosion-related contamination in several tanks. A shipment of Azerbaijani crude oil expected to reach the Constanța port was not delivered, resulting in a raw material shortage at Petrobrazi. In response to the situation, the government decided to permit the use of reserves held by OMV Petrom.

The Ministry issued an order allowing OMV Petrom to withdraw 80,000 tons of crude oil and 30,000 tons of diesel from emergency reserves. These reserves were established in compliance with legislation to ensure supply stability.

According to the regulations, the company has two months to replenish its reserves to the required level.