The supply of aviation fuels is guaranteed by Galp “until the peak of summer”, said this Friday, April 17, the Minister of Energy and the Environment.
“Galp, in the meeting we had, tells us that it can handle it perfectly until the peak of summer”, that is, “in the beginning, mid-August”, stated Maria da Graça Carvalho, at the end of the presentation session of the Program to Support the Reduction of Fuel Load through Extensive Grazing, in Porto de Mós, in the district of Leiria.
According to the minister, the information comes from “indications from Galp’s CEO two or three days ago”.
“They have a large production, the raw material they receive comes essentially from the Atlantic and, from Galp’s point of view, we still have it for several months”, he added.
The Government’s meetings with Galp and also with Repsol came to the understanding that “the situation in the Iberian Peninsula is much more comfortable than in the rest of Europe and many areas of the world”.
The Energy and Environment Minister’s tranquility extends to electricity, as there is “a lot of renewable energy – more than 80%” and, regarding “everything that is diesel and jet (fuel), in the Iberian Peninsula, there are eight or nine refineries, one here and the rest in Spain”.
“We are in a more comfortable position, but we are not out of the impacts. The planes that arrive in Portugal are not just Spanish and Portuguese ones. If there is a shortage worldwide, of course it affects us, due to the economy and because other companies have restrictions and will not arrive here”, he acknowledged.
Maria da Graça Carvalho recalled that “the world is global, for better and for worse” and, therefore, although Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula are “relatively better than others, (we are) always subject” to the possibility of “a very big crisis happening”:
“If Lufthansa is affected, and planes from France, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world are affected, of course we will suffer”, because “we are all interconnected”.
However, “the investment we made in renewable energy, in the production of renewable gases here, and now in SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) – which we still do not produce in large quantities, but which is our bet – is bearing fruit and shows that it is the right path, also in terms of security from the point of view of supply, when there is a crisis”, he highlighted.
