Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy has stated, SIPTU members have served notice of strike action at Zenith Energy Bantry Bay Terminal Limited, located on Whiddy Island in County Cork. The strike action is due to commence on Tuesday, 13 December, in a dispute over redundancies at Zenith Energy.

While the Deputy's question refers to the strike at the Zenith storage facility in Bantry, he also makes reference to NORA and the need to ensure the terms and conditions of employment of all employees at the agency are protected and the need to ensure the employer engages with the architecture of industrial relations. In this regard, it is important to clearly state that while NORA holds stocks of petroleum products on the site, NORA employees are not employed on the site nor are they in any way involved in the aforementioned industrial dispute. The employees of Zenith Energy are not NORA employees, NORA merely holds stocks on the site as part of its obligations under legislation.

Under the National Oil Reserves Act 2007, NORA was established as a non-commercial State body with responsibility for the management of Ireland's strategic oil reserve. NORA is Ireland's stockholding agency and currently holds approximately 85 days of oil stocks, with approximately 85% of these stocks stored on the island of Ireland.

NORA stocks are balanced to match the end-use domestic consumption of the various oil products, petrol, diesel, and kerosene. NORA, having released stock to meet Ireland's obligations under the recent International Energy Agency, IEA, collective actions, is scheduled to increase its stockholding to 90 days in early 2023 as required by Ireland's membership of the European Union and the IEA. NORA holds 85 to 90 days of oil reserves to cover any emergency for resupply through the commercial system. Ireland's policy of holding a strategic oil reserve equivalent to 90 days of net imports is required by both its membership of the EU and the IEA, and is provided for by the National Oil Reserves Agency Act.

NORA has operational responsibility for the day-to-day management of the State's strategic oil reserve. This includes the purchase of refined products and entering into agreements with third parties to lease storage capacity, as required.

In line with Government policy, the 90-day obligation is met almost entirely by the holding of refined product in Ireland, ready to be placed on the domestic market in the event of a shortage of petroleum products arising in the commercial supply chains or released to the international markets as part of an IEA collective action.

The industry has worked hard to boost stock levels since the onset of the war in Ukraine and industry is confident of maintaining supply levels with inventory levels strengthened.

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