Opinion piece by Ilona Bērziņa
Companies responsible for servicing the state’s emergency oil product reserves must be entirely above any suspicion of cooperating with Russia or handling Russian cargo. Yet last week, the customs service temporarily halted a railway shipment of oil products that was intended for delivery to Vitol Terminal Latvia in Ventspils. The reason, as far as understood, was unclear documentation. According to the information obtained, the cargo is still being held. This raises important questions: Where does this fuel come from, and how is its origin monitored?
According to available information, the products may have come from India. However, experts have previously noted that such shipments may be refined from Russian crude oil — meaning that sanctioned raw material enters the market under a different country-of-origin label. This does not necessarily indicate a direct violation, but rather loopholes within a sanctions system that cannot fully close every gap.
A deeper problem — state reserves and intermediaries
This case highlights a broader issue: Who is actually entrusted with Latvia’s state oil reserves?
Over the years, various industry representatives have noted that state reserves are not always stored with major, well-established terminals but instead with smaller intermediaries whose transparency is limited. This not only creates security risks but also increases costs, as every intermediary adds its markup.
On paper, this is justified as competition and market principles. In practice, it means that a key national security mechanism depends on the reliability of private middlemen. Prices rise, but confidence in the real availability of reserves falls.
What does this mean for the public?
If the system remains opaque, it is the public who ultimately pays more — both through fuel prices and uncertainty.
If, in a crisis, it turns out that part of the reserves exist only on paper or are held by companies unable to fulfil their obligations, the resulting damage would be not only economic but also a significant blow to national security.
The public has the right to know who holds the state reserves, how they are supervised, and how the servicing companies are vetted. Currently, this information is insufficiently public, fueling suspicion and distrust.
The halted cargo is not just an isolated incident — it is a symbol of a system where oversight and transparency lag behind the risks.
The core issue is that we cannot be certain that, in a crisis, the necessary fuel will be available where it is needed — and at a reasonable price.
Therefore, this is not merely a story about one train or one terminal. It is about the state’s ability to protect its security from grey zones shaped not by policy, but by silence.
Read also: BNN Interview | “110 million euros evaporates every year” — Andris Kulbergs on the absurd cost of Riga’s heating