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EU gets 40% of natural gas, 27% of oil, and 46% of coal from
Russia
Petroleum at 67.3 billion euros dominates EU imports worth 95.3
billion
Europe is planning to cut the consumption of Russian natural
gas this year by as much as 66% ahead of a total break with its single biggest
energy supplier over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a CNN report said.
EU officials on Tuesday outlined a plan to achieve energy
independence from Moscow "well before 2030," the report said.
The European Union plans to cut its consumption of Russian
natural gas by two-thirds this year.
An emergency summit of EU leaders in France on Thursday will
give a firmer shape to the plans. The decision emerged hours ahead of US
President Joe Biden’s announcement
of a total ban on energy imports including oil, gas and coal from Russia to
punish President Vladimir Putin for his Ukraine invasion.
"We must become independent from Russian oil, coal and
gas," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a
statement. "We simply cannot rely on a supplier who explicitly threatens
us."
The European Union gets about 40% of natural gas, 27% of oil
imports, and 46% of coal imports from Russia.
According to the website, ec.europa.eu,
the total trade in goods between the EU and Russia in 2020 was 174.3 billion
euros or $190 billion. The EU’s imports dominated by fuel and mining products were
worth 95.3 billion euros – including petroleum (67.3 billion euros, 70.6%). The
EU’s exports amounted to 79.0 billion euros, led by machinery and transport
equipment.
Frans Timmermans, EU climate policy chief, said the war in
Ukraine underscored the need to accelerate the clean energy transition. Europe
could replace 100 billion cubic meters of Russian gas imports by the end of
2022, he said. "That is two thirds of what we import from them," he added.
"Two thirds by the end of this year. It's hard, bloody hard but it's
possible if we're willing to go further and faster than we've done before."
But the Biden administration Tuesday announced an outright
ban on all Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports. And the UK government
said Tuesday it would phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022 and
explore ways of ending natural gas imports too.
EU leaders made clear this week that the bloc can't yet join
the United States in banning Russian oil, because of the impact that would have
on households and businesses already grappling with record high prices for fuel
and heating.
Image source: openaccessgovernment.org