Central/eastern Europe.

EU accepts Czech reserves build-up

The EU has agreed to the Czech Republic's request to extend the transition period for building a 90-day state oil reserve until December 2005. The Czech government is also requesting a transition period for oil price deregulation. The agreement will help bring the Czech Republic in line with requirements for EU membership. The country has managed to increase its reserves to 65-days of average consumption, and now aims to boost this by five days a year until 2005. Current average consumption in the country is 170,000-180,000 b/d. The government has built two oil storage tanks at Nelahozeves (800,000[m.sup.3]) in the Czech Republic and …