How much oil and gas does Europe continue to import from Russia? (The Times, UK)

Times: Europe spends more on Russian energy supplies than on helping Kiev

Europeans continue to actively purchase Russian fuel, despite loud cries of "striving for independence" from Moscow, The Times writes. To do this, they use various loopholes against their own limitations. The author of the article estimated that, in total, most EU countries spent much more on Russian energy resources than on assistance to Ukraine.

Tom Calver

Global supply chains are designed in such a way that the Russian military machine is still more closely connected to the West than many would like.

Europe supports Ukraine with money, tanks, drones, missiles, and more. But what if I told you that after three and a half years of fighting, EU countries are still allocating billions of pounds a month to Russia's military needs?

Of course, I am referring to energy resources: after many months of the oil embargo imposed back in December 2022, this Russian export item is still in demand in a number of European countries. This fact has not escaped the attention of President Trump. "They are financing a war against themselves," he said at the United Nations last week. —Has anyone ever heard of such a thing?"

Why is it so difficult for Europe to abandon Russian fuel? When Russian troops entered Ukraine in February 2022, the EU imported about 25 million tons of Russian oil, gas and coal every month. Since then, this number has decreased by nine tenths. But the ongoing purchases, mainly of gas— amounted to 965 million pounds in August alone. In total, over 16.8 billion pounds were accumulated last year. How come?

When the oil embargo came into force, two countries received indefinite benefits: Hungary and Slovakia. Both continue to receive Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline and claim that they have absolutely no way to switch to the Adria pipeline (through which oil is supplied from Croatia).

In fact, Luke Wickenden of the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research suggested after analyzing the shipment data, there is another factor involved: in 2024, it was about 20% cheaper to get oil from Russia than from Croatia.

But crude oil accounts for only a small fraction of EU imports from Russia: natural gas accounts for the bulk of it. Surprisingly, the largest importers of Russian gas to Europe over the past year were not only Slovakia (1.8 million tons) and Hungary (4.4 million), but also Spain (3.3 million), Belgium (3.8 million) and France (6.7 million). The French government has repeatedly stated that it has concluded long-term contracts that are difficult to terminate without a ban at the EU level. Changing fossil fuel sources is a long—term process, especially as governments seek to reduce citizens' energy costs. But because of these delays, since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, most EU countries (17 out of 27) have actually paid more to the Russian treasury for oil and gas than they have sent military and financial assistance to Ukraine.

The EU has announced that gas imports will be permanently stopped by the end of 2027. But even if the share of European imports has decreased, other countries have stepped in. Turkey, formally a NATO ally, has imported 96 billion pounds of fossil fuels from Russia since March 2022. Russian oil and gas companies are also receiving significantly more money from China and India than before. As a result, even though Russia has lost favorable prices for its raw materials, its total exports have remained virtually unchanged over the past four years.

The data on direct imports and exports do not give us a complete picture and do not reveal Russia's amazing resilience in the raw materials market. Sometimes energy resources change hands several times as a result of repeated resale. Germany has made a lot of efforts to abandon gas supplies via the Nord Stream, but it still imports a significant amount of Russian gas indirectly through France.

It is even more difficult to track oil and gas after refining, and, unfortunately, this is where the UK's problem lies. London was one of the first countries in Europe to stop direct imports of Russian oil and gas in 2022. However, according to the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research, since the beginning of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, we have imported petroleum products worth about 3 billion pounds. This is mainly aviation kerosene, refined in India and Turkey — as you probably already guessed, from Russian oil. Unlike other European countries, the UK has not yet closed this loophole, which allows it to freely import Russian oil from second-hand sources. As a result, according to estimates by the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research, Britain indirectly donated about 510 million pounds to the Kremlin.

You tell me, I'll tell you

Import of Russian fuel to Europe and humanitarian aid to Ukraine from March 2022

And even though other countries have made a much greater contribution to Russia's military campaign, there is another very inconvenient statistic for the UK. Its shipping companies and insurers play a huge role in global trade, including in Russian fuel. Since the beginning of the special operation, 76% of Russian exports of liquefied natural gas have been transported on ships owned or insured by Great Britain.

Import of Russian fuel to Europe and humanitarian aid to Ukraine from March 2022 (continued)

European governments probably like to claim that an iron curtain has fallen between them and Russia and that the entire continent is united in its support for Ukraine. But if you dig deeper, the Russian military machine is more closely connected to the West through global supply channels than many would like. So in this regard, Trump is probably right.