Total imports of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia to the EU fell in March 2023 to 1.4 million tonnes (Mt) from the average monthly figure of 15.2 Mt over the three years from 2019 to 2022. Eurostat said this is equivalent to a 90% reduction in an article published on Monday 19 June.
As part of the new package of sanctions against Russia, the European Commission has announced that Germany and Poland will no longer be able to import Russian oil by pipeline, except for targeted derogations to allow maintenance of the Caspian pipeline, which transports Kazakh oil to the EU via Russia (see other news). This would reduce imports even further.
Embargoes on Russian oil imports into the EU were agreed upon as part of the EU’s sixth sanctions package in June 2022. The ban on importing crude oil by sea came into force on 5 Decembe 2022, while the ban on importing petroleum products took effect on 5 February 2023.
Crude oil imports fell from 12.4 Mt in January 2022 to 3.7 Mt in December 2022 (-70%) when the embargo came into force. They reached 1.17 Mt in March 2023 (-91%).
At the same time, imports of petroleum products fell from 3.3 Mt in January 2022 to 0.7 Mt in February 2023 (-80%) and to 0.3 Mt in March 2023 (-92%).
Read the Eurostat publication: https://aeur.eu/f/7o2 (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)