Brussels, 19/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - According to information that Eurostat supplied on Friday, in 2001, the EU imported crude oil from third countries for a value of 90 billion euro, a little over 40 billion from countries members of OPEC. OPEC's share in extra-Community imports has fallen regularly over the past years, going from 55% in 1999 to 45% in 2001, says Eurostat, adding that, taking account of intra-Community trade, "OPEC was responsible for 38% of EU Member States' total imports of crude oil in 2001". the main extra-EU suppliers in 2001 were Norway, with 21% of the total (19 billion euro), Russia, with 17% (15 billion euro), then come five OPEC countries: Saudi Arabia (11%), Libya (10%), Iran (6), Nigeria (6%), Algeria (5%). All Member States recorded a global deficit in the trade balance (intra-EU + extra-EU) of crude oil in 2001, except for the United Kingdom (+0.9 billion euro) and Denmark (+1.6 billion). The main importers of crude oil were Germany, France and Italy, together totalling close to half total EU imports.