“If we could stop this imports Of petroleum from Russia we would do it automatically. It’s not a question of whether we want it or not, but how much we are employee“. The German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock he summed up the dilemma surrounding Moscow crude oil from Brussels. The new package of sanctions Whoever arrives at the summit of heads of state and government on March 24 is still without one of his most powerful weapons: the embargo Russian oil. And Berlin is one of those who have slowed down: among the large European countries that Germany it is in fact the one with the largest share of imports gas from Russia, ahead of Italy, and the same (by far) for the petroleum. What is in the crosshairs of the EU again, not without reason: the larger stream of revenues for the Kremlin, it comes from crude oil and petroleum products. For a value from last year, a report by the nongovernmental organization recalls Traffic & Environmenttouched i $180 billion (110 crude oil only) vs. i 54 collected from the sale of gas.
The European Union and UK are obviously very good customers with a 2021 edition $104 billion: the highest since 2014, the year of the annexation of Crimea and the first traderestricting measures. In 2020 there was obviously a collapse, then with the recovery associated hunger for fuel for transport and industrial purposes after covid Purchases Doubled, Spending Rising a $285 million per day. Much more today considering the barrel has gone from an average of $70 in 2021 to over $100. It is this flow of liquidity that allows Moscow to withstand and fund the shockwave of the first round of penalties, at least in the short term advanced in Ukraine. The NGO, which has long called for an embargo on Russian oil, has come up with an eloquent one graphic (Picture above) shows what the value of European oil imports from Russia looks like directly correlated with the development of Russian defense spending based on data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. “The budget of the Russian Ministry of Defense is linked to the price of oil. Given the constant and reliable oil demand from the EU, it is clear that Brussels has made a crucial contribution to the modernization of the Russian armed forces, T&E notes.
Transport and environmental analysis based on World Bank and Eurostat data
Of course, given that Russia accounts for a quarter of EU18 crude oil imports, an oil embargo would be huge painful also for buyers, as the spokesman for Wladimir Putin. Especially in absolute terms, Germany is the most exposed country: According to the latest data, it imports from Moscow a quarter of crude oil Bought by the whole EU (plus London), over 28 million tonnes per year versus 18 million Poland and 13 gods Netherlands. Italy stands still at 5.6 million tons.
On the other hand, if we look at the share of crude oils and petroleum products imported from Russia in total imports, are the most dependent countries Slovakia (78.4%), Poland, Finland and Lithuania, with over twothirds. For Berlin the fee is 29.7%, 13.3% for Paris, 12.5% for Rome. Although these data, Transport & Environment warns, do not take into account the use of refined products in other European countries made from Russian raw material.
Most of the oil imported from Russia comes via sea. Ten major ports handle more than 50% of flows: Leads Rotterdam with over 26 million tons per year, followed by Gdansk in Poland. Trieste and Genoa are in third and sixth place, respectively Le Havre and Marseilles They are the major arrival hubs for France. Even a limited embargo on the Dutch airport, the report said, would have “a significant impact on how much of Putin’s oil is imported into the continent.”