After President Joe Biden announced the ban on imports of oil, natural gas and coal from Russia by the United States in response to the invasion of Ukraine, the question arises about how much the world depends on energy From Russia.
The measure taken by the United States has been supported by the United Kingdom – which will put the measure into effect towards the end of 2022 -, while the countries of the European Union (EU), much more dependent on Russian hydrocarbons, plan to reduce demand of natural gas by two-thirds this year as they prepare for a complete break with their largest supplier.
“We must become independent from Russian oil, coal and gas,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. “We simply cannot trust a vendor that explicitly threatens us.”
Under plans outlined by European officials — to be discussed at an emergency summit in France on Thursday — the bloc seeks to achieve energy independence from Moscow “well before 2030.”
But what are the data?
Major oil producers in the world
As of 2020, Russia was the world’s third largest producer of crude oil after the United States and Saudi Arabia. It then produced an annual average of 9.9 million barrels per day, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). By 2021, it became second, producing 9.7 million barrels. , as seen in the following graph.
How much oil does Russia export?
Russia exports almost half of the total oil it produces: 5 million barrels a day were shipped abroad in 2020, according to the EIA.
Europe is Russia’s main market for its oil and natural gas exports and thus its main source of income. In 2020, Russia exported 48% of its crude to European countries , particularly Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland.
While 42% was sent to Asia and Oceania and 31% to China. And about 1% of Russia’s total crude oil exports in 2020 went to the United States.
How much oil does the EU import from Russia?
At the same time, a significant part of the EU’s oil and gas imports in 2021 came from Russia: 27% of the 27-country bloc’s oil imports. Russia also supplies 46% of the EU’s coal imports. Add that trade together, and it’s worth tens of billions of dollars a year to Russia, presumably helping to finance President Vladimir Putin’s war effort.
How much oil does the United States import from Russia?
About 8% of US hydrocarbon imports came from Russia in 2021, of which only about 3% was crude oil. That year, the US bought about 245.2 million barrels of crude oil and oil products from him, its highest level since 1995, when these operations began to be recorded.
The Department of Energy reported that Russian oil imports fell to zero in the last two weeks of February as US companies cut ties with Russia, effectively implementing their own ban.