The US and its European allies have responded to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine with extensive economic sanctions. As this was not enough to stop the Russian attack, Ukraine is demanding a total energy embargo on Russia. Europeans avoid this, however, because their dependence on Russian gas and oil is so great. Austria hardly receives any more oil from Russia.
According to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, EU states transfer around one billion euros to Russia every day for energy supplies. According to other sources, it’s not that much, but it’s hundreds of millions a day that the EU uses to finance the Russian state anyway. It is estimated that energy revenues account for about half of Russia’s state budget.
An energy embargo would not only seriously harm Russia’s economy, but also that of Western countries. For example, German economic experts are warning of a severe recession as a result of the freeze in Russian energy supplies.
Last year, the EU covered around 40% of its gas needs and a quarter of its oil needs with imports from Russia. A total renouncement of Russian gas therefore seems impossible in the short and medium term, especially Germany, Austria and Hungary, but also the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and other countries are heavily dependent on Russian gas. Hungary has already announced that it will veto an energy embargo.
39 percent of Kazakhstan’s oil
However, the political call for an import ban, at least for Russian oil, is getting louder – because oil imports are not as dependent on pipeline connections, an embargo would be easier to implement than for gas. Unlike Germany, for example, which gets more than a third of its oil imports from Russia, this would be relatively easy for Austria: according to data from Statistics Austria and the Mineral Oil Industry Association, just 7.8 % or 596,000 tons of Austrian oil oil imports came from there in 2021 in Russia. Austria’s most important oil supplier has been Kazakhstan for many years, with an import share of 38.9%. Libya follows in second and third place with 22.1 percent and Iraq with 20.7 percent.