Data released by Eurostat shows a significant reduction of imports of oil and petroleum products from Russia in 2022 compared to 2019, with other countries such as Brazil, the United States and Angola increasing imports to meet the unmet demand. According to the same data, over the last few months oil and petroleum products are imported to Cyprus mainly from Algeria and the US. With Russia being the largest supplier of fossil fuels to the EU, oil was one of the energy mix components most affected by the conflict, and while demand stayed stable, imports of oil and petroleum products from Russia decreased from 15.724 million tonnes to 6.248 million tonnes in just 12 months. Compared with 2019, oil imports from Russia dropped from 207.070 million tonnes to 133 380 thousand tonnes in 2022 (-36%). This created space for other import partners to increase their supply. Compared with 2019, the United States increased their annual export to the EU by 25.813 million tonnes (+63%), Norway by 16.695 million tonnes (+37%), Brazil by 8.711 million tonnes (+194%), Angola by 4.140 million tonnes (+57%) and the United Arab Emirates by 1.435 million tonnes (24%). In addition, the EU allowed for two emergency stock releases in 2022 (1 March, 1 April) to stabilise the market. In Cyprus, the main source of imports for oil and oil products was Russia and the United States, and to an extent Algeria and Libya, with Russia being the main supplier in 2022 until August. Afterwards, the main supplier was Algeria, along with the US.
Source: Cyprus News Agency