According to a think tank analysis, the EU will remain the main buyer of oil from Russia for the time being, despite the war in Ukraine. Media reports about allegedly large amounts of oil imported into China and India gave a different and therefore misleading impression, writes the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) in Helsinki in an analysis published on Thursday.
In June, the EU was responsible for 51 percent of oil exports from Russia, China for 25 percent and India for only four percent. Other G7 and NATO countries were responsible for 9 percent.
Recently, international media had reported that fossil fuel exports from Russia to China and India were a problem. The many headlines on the subject gave the impression that these countries were particularly responsible for the corresponding Russian revenues, wrote the CREA. In its current analysis, the think tank refuted this assessment.
Overall, as the war progressed, there was a trend that Russia was exporting fewer fossil fuels. The EU’s share of this has also fallen over the months. Among the EU countries, the largest importers were Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey and Italy.
Russia repeatedly emphasizes that it can withstand the Western sanctions imposed as a result of the Ukraine war. In this context, Moscow repeatedly refers to the expansion of trade relations with large emerging countries.
Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin, for example, only declared at the Brics economic forum at the end of June that the volume of Russian oil supplied to China and India was increasing noticeably.
The think tank also writes that China faces logistical challenges if it wants to import more oil and gas from Russia. China is currently buying what Russia can supply through existing pipelines and ports in the Pacific. The route through the Black Sea or the Baltic Sea, on the other hand, would be long, expensive and would require the construction of new infrastructure.
Germany wants to be independent of Russian oil from December 31, 2022. But the bigger problem is with the gas. Chancellor’s State Secretary Jörg Kukies says that the EU imports around 158 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia every year.
