In the third quarter of 2023, the EU imported 35.4 billion euros worth of energy products amounting to a total of 65 million tonnes. Compared with the same quarter of 2022, imports decreased both in value (-49.1 percent) and in net mass (-11.3 percent).
Imports of energy products made up 17.7 percent of all EU imports in the third quarter of 2023. From 2019 to 2023, there were significant fluctuations in this share which can mainly be attributed to the pronounced volatility in the prices of energy products.
The share of petroleum oils in the total EU imports increased from 9.1 percent in 2021 to 11.0 percent in 2022 and remained at 10.6 percent in the first three quarters of 2023. More significant fluctuations were observed for natural gas, rising from 5.1 percent in 2021 to 10.8 percent in 2022, before declining to 6.5 percent in the first three quarters of 2023.
Comparing the third quarter of 2022 with the third quarter of 2023, imports of petroleum oils remained stable while the imports of natural gas dropped significantly (from 13.1 percent to 5.2 percent).
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Norway and United States – key energy suppliers
Most of the EU imports of petroleum oil in the third quarter of 2023 came from the United States (17.7 percent), followed by Norway (13.7 percent) and Kazakhstan (8.2 percent).
Almost half of the natural gas in the gaseous state came from Norway (48.6 percent). Algeria followed with 17.8 percent, ahead of Russia (16.0 percent) and the United Kingdom (10.5 percent).
The United States provided almost half of the imported liquified natural gas (48.5 percent), ahead of Qatar (14.0 percent), Algeria (10.1 percent) and Russia (8.8 percent).
Russia’s share of energy products drops
Russia’s share in the EU imports of energy products has been decreasing following the war of aggression against Ukraine. In the third quarter of 2022, Russia accounted for 14.5 percent of all the EU imports of energy products, and in the third quarter of 2023, it accounted for 6.5 percent of all energy imports.
Source: Eurostat
