2.— In this Act—

“Act of 1963” means the Companies Act 1963;

“Act of 2001” means the Irish National Petroleum Corporation Limited Act 2001;

F1["additives" means non-hydrocarbon compounds added to or blended with a product to modify the properties of that product;]

“Agency” means the body corporate formed and registered under the Companies Acts and continued in existence under section 7 as An Ghníomhaireacht Chúltaca Ola Náisiúnta or, in the English language, as the National Oil Reserves Agency;

“authorised officer” has the meaning assigned by section 46 ;

F1["available and physically accessible" in respect of stocks means that, in a case of particular urgency, the stocks are at the disposal of the Minister and arrangements are in place to release the stocks to the market within time frames and under conditions conducive to alleviating an oil supply disruption;]

“bilateral agreement” means any agreement between the Government and the government of another state relating to the holding of oil stocks;

F2["biofuel" has the meaning assigned by section 44A;

"biofuel levy" means the biofuel levy imposed under Part 5A;

"biofuel obligation" has the same meaning as in Part 5A;

"biofuel producer" has the meaning assigned by section 44A;

"biofuel supplier" has the meaning assigned by section 44A;]

F1["central stockholding entity" means the body or service upon which powers may be conferred to act to acquire, maintain or sell oil stocks, including emergency stocks and specific stocks;]

“chief executive” means the chief executive of the Agency;

F3["Climate Action Fund" means the fund established under section 37B;]

F4["Council Directive" means Council Directive 2009/119/EC of 14 September 2009¹, as amended by Commission Implementing Directive (EU) 2018/1581 of 19 October 2018²;]

“designated subsidiary” means a subsidiary in respect of which an order is in operation under section 16(12);

F1["effective international decision to release stocks" means any decision taken by the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency to make crude oil or petroleum products available to the market by a release of the stocks of its members or by additional measures which is in force for the time being;

"emergency stocks" means the oil stocks that each Member State is required to maintain pursuant to Article 3 of the Council Directive;]

F5["EU emergency stocks", "Irish emergency stocks" and "oil stocks agreement" have the meanings assigned to them, respectively in the European Union (Oil Reserves) Regulations 2012 (S.I. No. 541 of 2012);]

“holding contract” has the meaning assigned by section 33;

“IEP Agreement” means the Agreement on an International Energy Program signed at Paris on 18 November 1974;

F1["inland consumption" means the total quantities, calculated in accordance with Schedule 2, delivered within the State for both energy and non-energy use; this aggregate includes deliveries to the transformation sector and deliveries to industry, transport, households and other sectors for final consumption; it also includes the own consumption of the energy sector (other than refinery fuel);]

“intermediate product” means any substance other than crude oil that is capable of being processed into petroleum products of any description;

F1["International Energy Agency" means the intergovernmental organisation of that name established within the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development;]

“levy” means the levy imposed under Part 5 ;

“local authority” has the same meaning as in the Local Government Act 2001;

F1["major supply disruption" means a substantial and sudden drop in the supply of crude oil or petroleum products to the European Communities or to a Member State, irrespective of whether that drop has led to an effective international decision to release stocks;]

“Minister” means the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources;

“national oil reserves” means at any time the total volume of oil stocks F6[(excluding EU emergency stocks and specific stocks)] held at that time by—

(a) the Agency or another person on its behalf under a holding contract,

(b) oil companies, and

(c) oil consumers;

“oil” means crude oil, intermediate products and petroleum products;

“oil company”, with respect to any month, means any person (other than the Agency) that, in the preceding calendar year—

(a) imported into the State or acquired, by purchase or otherwise, from another oil company or from an oil refining or oil storage facility in the State, oil for that person’s own consumption, for resale or for disposal to a third party, or

(b) operated an oil refining or oil storage facility in the State that held in storage, consumed or sold oil;

“oil consumer”, with respect to any month, means any person that, in the preceding calendar year—

(a) imported into the State,

(b) acquired, by purchase or otherwise, from an oil company in the State, or

(c) held in storage in the State,

1,000 or more tonnes of petroleum products exclusively for that person’s own consumption in the State and not for resale or for disposal to a third party;

F7["Oil Emergency Plan" has the meaning assigned to it by section 68;]

F8["oil stocks" means stocks of the energy products listed in Chapter 3.4 of Annex A to Regulation (EC) No. 1099/2008;]

“petroleum products” includes the following categories of products:

(a) motor spirit and aviation fuel (that is to say, jet fuel of the gasoline type and aviation spirit);

(b) gas oil, diesel oil and kerosene (including jet fuel of the kerosene type);

(c) fuel oils;

F9["prescribed" means prescribed (other than in sections F10[…] 44E, 44G, 44GA, 44X and 44J) by regulations made by the Minister;]

F7["public body" means any of the following:

(a) a Minister of the Government;

(b) a local authority;

(c) the Health Service Executive;

(d) a university or institute of technology;

(e) an education and training board established under section 9 of the Education and Training Boards Act 2013;

(f) any other person, body or organisation established—

(i) by or under an enactment (other than the Companies Act 2014) or charter,

(ii) by any scheme administered by a Minister of the Government, or

(iii) under the Companies Act 2014 in pursuance of powers conferred by or under another enactment, and financed wholly or partly by means of money provided, or loans made or guaranteed, by a Minister of the Government or the issue of shares held by or on behalf of a Minister of the Government;

(g) a company (within the meaning of the Companies Act 2014) a majority of the shares in which are held by or on behalf of a Minister of the Government;

(h) any other person, body, organisation or group that the Minister may prescribe for the purposes of this Act;]

F1["reference year" means the calendar year of the consumption or of the net import data used to calculate either the stocks to be held, or the stocks actually held, at any given time;

F7["register" has the meaning assigned to it by section 69.]

F4["Regulation (EC) No. 1099/2008" means Regulation (EC) No. 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008³, as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) No. 147/2013 of 13 February 2013⁴, Commission Regulation (EU) No. 431/2014 of 24 April 2014⁵ and Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/2010 of 9 November 2017⁶;]]

“regulations relating to returns” means regulations under section 59;

“share transfer day” means the day appointed under section 5;

“stockholding obligations”, in relation to the State, means its obligations relating to the maintenance of oil stocks under—

(a) the Council Directive,

(b) any provision of the treaties governing the European Communities,

(c) any act adopted by the institutions of those Communities,

(d) the IEP Agreement, and

(e) any international convention or agreement to which the State is or becomes a party;

“subsidiary” means a subsidiary (within the meaning of section 155 of the Act of 1963) of the Agency;

“superannuation benefit” means a pension, gratuity or other allowance payable on resignation, retirement or death.