The largest producers of oil in the European Union were, in 2022, Italy (4.5 million tons), Denmark (3.2 million tons) and Romania (3 million tons), according to data published on Monday by Eurostat.

 

According to these data, EU crude oil production continued to decline in 2022, despite a significant increase in oil prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. EU oil production fell in 2022 to a historic low of 16.3 million tonnes, 7.4% less than in 2021.

 

Taking a longer time horizon into account, EU crude oil production has been declining since 2004, when it peaked at 41.8 million tonnes, meaning that production in 2022 was 61% lower compared to with the historical maximum since 2004.

 

In 2022 compared to 2021, oil production also decreased in the first three producers: Italy (minus 8%), Denmark (minus 2%) and Romania (minus 6%).

 

According to Eurostat, the EU’s dependence on imports of oil and oil products reached a new historical high of 97.7% in 2022, after in 2021 this dependence registered a significant decline to 91.6%.

 

In 2022, total EU crude oil imports stood at 479.6 million tonnes, a considerable increase of 7.4 percentage points compared to 2021, when these imports fell to their lowest level in 31 years . Most imports came from 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).

 

Also in 2022, EU refineries produced 544.3 million tonnes of oil equivalent of petroleum products, up 4.5% compared to 2021. The largest producers of petroleum products were: Germany (99.9 million tonnes oil equivalent), Italy (74.6 million tons of oil equivalent), Spain (63.4 million tons of oil equivalent) and the Netherlands (59.6 million tons of oil equivalent). Next, in order, are France, Greece, Belgium, Poland, Sweden and Romania, with a production of less than 20 million tons of oil equivalent.