In response to the outbreak of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) stated that whether it is coal, oil, or natural gas, all are sufficiently stocked in response to concerns over Taiwan’s energy supply being affected by the war. The energy supply will not be affected by the war between Russia and Ukraine. The MOEA also added, Russian crude oil has not been imported since 2016.

The MOEA stated that in order to ensure the stability of domestic energy supply, the government actively promotes energy security work in normal times. Among them, coal, oil or natural gas are stored in accordance with the law up to a certain level of safety stock. Up until now, there are still 36 days of domestic safety stock of coal, up to 148 days of crude oil (including 75 days of CNPC crude oil inventory) and 10 days of natural gas, all of which exceed statutory safety stock and are sufficient to respond to the current situation.

The MOEA further explained, in addition to safety stock, diversifying procurement sources and adopting long-term procurement are also important measures. In terms of crude oil, domestic crude oil is imported from 14 countries. Primary import sources include the Middle East 74.25%, the Americas (US) 19.13%, and West Africa (Angola) 1.33%, and oil has not been imported from Russia since 2016, so there is little impact.

In addition, there are 9 sources of domestic coal consumption, mainly from Australia and Indonesia, accounting for 76.1% of total coal imports. Although Russia is also one of these coal sources, it accounts for only 14.7% of the total. Under the direction of active coal reduction, there is little impact on supply.

As for natural gas, which is the most concerning to the outside world, the MOEA stated that domestic natural gas purchases mainly account for 70% of medium and long-term natural gas purchases, which are not easily affected by short-term events. At the same time, these purchases are also diversified and scattered, with a total of 14 countries as input sources including Australia (32.2%) and Qatar (24.5%). Although Russia (9.7%) was also one of these sources in 2021, gas contracts with Russia will expire in March and there are already follow-up alternative sources to make up the gap.

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