Energy News Monitoring

Aenert news. Energy Market & Energy Statistics

Eurostat published the statistical overview on crude oil and petroleum products covering the period between 1990 and 2022. Looking at the EU oil consumption trends shown in the table below, there has been a decrease in oil consumption, with an overall decline of approximately 17% over the last 20 years (2002-2022). During this period, the lowest consumption was recorded in 2020, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, however in 2022 oil demand was almost back to the 2014 level.

Although the overall origin of crude oil imported into the EU has changed significantly due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, imports of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia decreased by 21.75% in 2022, the country still accounts for the bulk of imports. 



This decrease in imports from Russia was offset by an increase in imports from Saudi Arabia, the US and Norway. Specifically, the figures are as follows: Russia (88.4 million tons), Norway (54.1 million tons), USA (48.3 million tons), Iraq (37.2 million tons) and Kazakhstan (36.6 million tons).



Since 1990, the lowest volume of crude oil imports into the EU was recorded in 2021. In 2022, total crude oil imports amounted to 479.6 million; this is up 7.4 pp from the 2021 level but still lower than before COVID-19 when in 2019 imports amounted to 507.2 million tons.



EU crude oil production continued to decline steadily, reaching a new record low of 16.3 million tons (Mt) in 2022. The main crude oil producers in the EU in 2022 were Italy (4.5 Mt), Denmark (3.2 Mt) and Romania (3.0 Mt).

Looking at the production of petroleum products, amid a general downward trend, EU refineries produced 544.3 million tons of oil equivalent (Mtoe) of petroleum products in 2022, up 4.5% from the previous year. 2020 saw the lowest quantity of petroleum products since 1990, mainly due to COVID-19-related constraints and reduced demand for transportation fuels.



In 2022, Germany was the largest producer of petroleum products (99.9 Mtoe), followed by Italy (74.6 Mtoe), Spain (63.4 Mtoe) and the Netherlands (59.6 Mtoe).

As shown in the figure below, EU gas/diesel fuel production dominated (222.6 Mtoe), followed by motor gasoline (100.3 Mtoe), fuel oil (55.4 Mtoe) and naphtha (40.5 Mtoe).



The final consumption of oil and petroleum products for energy and non-energy purposes in the EU Member States decreased in 2022 by 0.6 % to 397.3 Mtoe. In 2022, Germany held the lead with a 21.3 % share of the total final EU consumption, followed by France (15.3 %), Spain (10.7 %) and Italy (10.6 %).



In 2022, final consumption of oil and oil products for energy and non-energy purposes was 397.3 million tons of oil equivalent. Germany led the way with a 21.3% share of total EU final consumption, followed by France (15.3%), Spain (10.7%) and Italy (10.6%).

In 2022, final consumption of petroleum products for energy purposes was still recovering from the decline registered in 2020, when transport fossil fuels were clearly affected by restrictions on human mobility. Compared to 2020, the growth in 2022 was 7.1%.

Looking at the entire 30-year period under consideration, the overall decline in consumption of petroleum products was driven by motor gasoline and fuel oil. However, the consumption of gas oil and diesel oil remained at approximately the same level.



The main sector of petroleum product consumption in Europe is transportation, which combined accounted for 66% (49%  –  road transport, 9% – water and 8% – air). Renewables and biofuels accounted for about 6% of all fuels used in road transportation in 2022.

The second sector was industry with a share of 17.6%, which includes non-energy consumption (15.5%) such as bitumen for road surfaces, the use of lubricants to reduce friction, petrochemical industry, and use of oil for energy purposes (5,1%). Oil consumption in the energy sector and households is only 5 % each.

By the Editorial Board