FORT BELVOIR, Va. –
Defense Logistics Agency Energy and DLA Energy Europe & Africa continue their efforts to ensure supply chain needs are fulfilled with assistance from Central Europe Pipeline System Program Board.
Delegates from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the United States met in Alexandria, Virginia, June 5-7, to ensure the readiness of the CEPS to meet both NATO and U.S. military requirements. The group convene three times a year to provide strategic direction and oversight of operations for the CEPS network.
As one of nine pipeline networks, the CEPS is designed to fulfill operational demands in Central Europe in times of peace, crisis and conflict. Being the largest of the NATO pipeline systems, the CEPS can provide military commanders with fuel for aircraft and ground vehicles, wherever and whenever it is required.
“The partnership between DLA and CEPS offers the United States, DLA and the U.S. European Command the opportunity for direct and close cooperation with allies on the fuel supply chain to fulfill military needs in Europe,” said Marilyn Morse, the director of resources and logistics and is the U.S. national representative on both the CEPS PB and its higher governing body, the NATO Support and Procurement Organization Agency Supervisory Board.
“The CEPS brings tremendous capability to DLA through a vast network of storage and pipeline distribution system across five European nations, enabling warfighter access to sufficient quantities of fuel throughout these five nations distributed at the right time and place,” she continued.
For Sam Cooks, the deputy U.S. national representative to the CEPS PB, the meeting was an excellent opportunity for board members to build rapport with one another and deepen relationships amongst CEPS member nations. He also highlighted non-military tariff rates for the CEPS as a key discussion topic.
“Although CEPS is a military pipeline system, non-military use of the system is allowed to maintain operational readiness of the system, maintain workforce technical skills, and rotate fuel stocks,” Cooks said. “During this meeting, the Program Board officially approved the 2025 non-military tariff rates, which help to offset CEPS member nation costs to maintain and operate the system.”
Army Lt. Col. Leslie Ann Shipp, DLA Energy Europe & Africa commander, attended the CEPS PB and believed the meeting is essential to addressing operational risks, the fuel supply chain, system optimization and cyber security.
“As a customer of the CEPS who stores and transports fuel for EUCOM airbases and ground units in Germany, I am in a unique position to advise the United States Representative to the CEPS PB on the military use of the system,” she said.
The next PB will be hosted by the CEPS Program Office from Nov. 19-20, at the NATO Support and Procurement Agency in Capellen, Luxembourg.
“During each CEPS PB, we aspire to achieve consensus among the six participating nations on best practices to provide support to the warfighter’s mission while continuing to foster the NATO alliance,” Morse said.