Alexela board member Alan Vaht emphasized that import volumes take into account all quantities that land in Estonian excise warehouses.
“They involve most quantities that are moved out of Estonia again and are not meant for the local market. Also, as far as I know, there is no way to tell apart quantities meant for the local market and those for export in statistics,” he said. “Therefore, not all quantities imported to Estonia and stored in excise warehouses are for the Estonian market.”
Gasoline from Spain
Looking at fuel export, it has been minimal in the past few years. Only €1,778 worth of gasoline 95 was exported from Estonia in January and February of this year. Export of gasoline 98 came to €61,000 in February, while it was zero in January.
Last year, export of gasoline 95 totaled €2.2 million and that of gasoline 98 €3.76 million, while import came to €72 million and €51 million respectively.
Vaht said that a part of the reason for bigger import quantities could be the contango situation, meaning that future prices of crude oil and motor fuels are higher than the current level.
“If contango is high enough, covers the costs of stockpiling and financing, there is heightened interest in booking free stockpiling volumes and stockpiling of fuel on the market,” he said.
A contango situation could be the reason why €6 million worth of gasoline 95 was imported from Spain from where motor fuel has not been imported in past years. Fuel meant for the Estonian market is imported from Finland or Lithuania. Nest Eesti buys its fuel from the Porvoo refinery owned by its parent company, Circle K from the Orlen refinery in Lithuania and Olerex from both.
However, even with the €6 million worth of fuel imported from Spain deducted, February imports of €12 million are still double the monthly average.