In July 2026, the EU held 103.5 million tonnes of emergency oil stocks. Compared with June 2026, emergency oil stocks decreased by 2.5%, while compared with July 2025, the drop was more substantial, at 4.2%.
In 2025, emergency oil stocks were mostly stable around an average of 108.5 million tonnes; however, they fell to 105.5 million tonnes in December, then recovered to previous levels in the first quarter of 2026. From March 2026 onwards, they have been on a downward trend.
The current levels are mostly composed of crude oil (43.7 million tonnes in the EU), gas/diesel oil (36.5 million tonnes) and gasoline (9.8 million tonnes).
Crude oil and petroleum products are crucial to the EU economy, and given EU’s oil import dependency, holding emergency oil stocks means more energy security. EU law requires EU countries to maintain minimum emergency stocks of both crude oil and petroleum products.
Source dataset: nrg_stk_oilm
In July 2026, 13 EU countries have registered crude oil and petroleum products stocks below the minimum emergency stock levels: Bulgaria, Czechia, Ireland, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Portugal, the Netherlands, Malta and Romania.
Germany registers the highest levels of emergency and commercial oil stocks
According to EU law, countries must report most of their commercial oil stocks, specifically, those held by economic operators within their national territory for their own operational and commercial needs. These stocks can therefore be considered available for use, alongside emergency stocks, in case of need.
In July 2026, the EU held 52.5 million tonnes of commercial oil stocks, up by 5.7% from the previous month and by 10.6% from July 2025.
Germany had the highest amounts of emergency oil stocks in July 2026, at 20.0 million tonnes. France (16.4 million tonnes), Spain (14.2) and Italy (9.4) followed with the highest levels of emergency oil stocks.
When it comes to commercial oil stocks, Germany also registered the highest level, at 11.2 million tonnes, followed by the Netherlands (10.0 million tonnes), Italy (5.8), France (3.9) and Poland (3.5).
Source dataset: nrg_stk_oilm
There were 6 EU countries in which the shares of commercial oil stocks represented more than half of the total crude oil and oil products available: the Netherlands (70.7%), Hungary (58.9%), Croatia (54.9%), Sweden (52.2%) and Denmark and Lithuania (each 51.9%).
