Financing Putin’s war on Europe: Fossil fuel imports from Russia in the first two months of the invasion

Corrected version: we detected errors in our data on pipeline gas imports into the EU; these have been corrected. We have also improved the allocation of gas imports by country (more details on the updates here and corrections there).

Fossil fuel exports are a key enabler of Russia’s military buildup and brutal aggression against Ukraine.

To shed light on who purchases Russia’s oil, gas and coal, and how the volume and value of imports have changed since the start of the invasion, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air has compiled a detailed dataset of pipeline and seaborne trade in Russian fossil fuels.

Key findings include:

  • 58 billion EUR worth of fossil fuels were exported via shipments and pipelines from Russia since the beginning of the invasion. The EU imported 70% of this, worth approximately 39 billion EUR.
  • The largest importers in order were Germany (EUR8.3bln), China (EUR7.1bln), Netherlands (EUR6bln), Italy (EUR4.3bln), Poland (EUR3.4bln), Turkey (EUR2.7bln) and France (EUR2.4bln).
  • Even in the absence of import bans, avoidance of Russian supplies is reducing seaborne imports. Oil deliveries from Russia to foreign ports fell by 20% in the first three weeks of April, compared with the January-February period before the invasion. Coal increased by 20%, while LNG deliveries increased by 50%. The fall in crude oil accelerated after mid-March.
  • Deliveries of oil to the EU fell by 20% and coal by 40%, while deliveries of LNG increased by 20%. EU gas purchases through pipeline increased by 10%. Oil deliveries to non-EU destinations increased by 20%, and with major changes in destinations. Deliveries of coal and LNG outside the EU increased by 30% and 80%, respectively.

You can read the full report in Ukrainian here or in English here.

Lauri Myllyvirta, Lead Analyst; Hubert Thieriot, Data Lead

Europe