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The European Union's dependency on imports of oil and petroleum products in 2022 rose to a new record of 97.7% after declining to 91.6% the year prior, Eurostat said on Monday (15 April).
"The EU’s import dependency for the entire family of crude oil and petroleum products surged to a new record high of 97.7% in 2022," Eurostat said in a statement.
The surge in oil import dependency resulted from a 4.9% increase in imports and a 1.7% decline in exports combined with a 2.8% increase in gross available energy, the statement read. It was also driven by the use of a stock buildup of 8.3 million tonnes of oil equivalent to replenish the energy used in 2021, which in turn required restocking for 2022.
The bloc's dependency on imported crude oil alone increased in 2022 to 97.6%, alongside increases in gasoline consumption by 6.3% and kerosene-type jet fuel by 32.5% year-on-year, Eurostat said.
The EU's own crude oil production continued to decline and reached a historic low of 16.3 million tonnes, a trend continuing since 2004. Top domestic producers included Italy (4.5 million tonnes), Denmark (3.2 million tonnes) and Romania (3.0 million tonnes), Eurostat said.
The EU's statistical office admitted the "significant increase in crude oil prices" after it gave up imports from Russia following the start of its special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, which Eurostat said brought about "considerable changes in import origins." The 24.57 million ton decrease of oil and petroleum products from Russia in 2022 was compensated by increased imports from Saudi Arabia, United States and Norway, the statement read.
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