The United States is now the biggest supplier of crude oil to the European Union.
In December, 18% of the bloc’s crude imports came from America, EU data office Eurostat said Tuesday.
Russia was until recently the bloc’s top supplier of crude, accounting for as much as 31% of total imports until the end of January 2022, according to Eurostat.
EU states slashed their imports of Russia’s energy, and the bloc imposed sanctions on the country’s oil and coal exports.
By the end of the year, “the EU’s biggest suppliers of crude oil were the United States, Norway, and Kazakhstan, showing that the EU managed to adapt to the changing oil market landscape and virtually remove its dependence on Russian oil,” Eurostat said.
Russia has found new buyers for its oil keen to snap up barrels at a steep discount — Moscow’s Urals crude is currently trading at $54 a barrel, compared with $78 a barrel for Brent crude, the global benchmark.
India and China, in particular, have ramped up oil imports from Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. »
