Oil and petroleum products - a statistical overview
Data extracted on 15 March 2023.
Planned article update: 2 April 2024.
Highlights
Production of crude oil continued to decline in the EU reaching a new record low in 2021 while the USA rose to become the third provider to the EU for the first time.
In 2021, the consumption of most oil products increased as the COVID-19 restrictions were slowly lifted in the EU, a big change was recorded for jet kerosene which increased by 25.55 %.
In 2021, the transport sector in the EU still relied heavily on oil products.
Final consumption (energy use), oil and petroleum products, EU, 1990-2021
This article provides an overview of oil statistics covering crude oil as well as petroleum products. Energy statistics are available for all 27 EU Member States and several non-EU countries. Data cover the period 1990 to 2021.
For decades, crude oil and petroleum products have the largest share in gross inland energy consumption in the EU. Despite decreasing production and fluctuating consumption through the years, crude oil and its derived products still play a major role. In recent times, many EU policies are starting to affect this large domain of the energy market, a domain which in 2021 registered some normalisation after having been heavily shocked in 2020 by the sudden impact of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the following EU policy decisions will be reflected in the 2022 data.
Full article
Production of crude oil
The production of crude oil in 2021 in the European Union (EU) continued decreasing and in 2021 reached its lowest point at 17.5 million tonnes (Mt). This is new record low in production after the drop in demand caused by the COVID-19 crises in 2020. Crude oil production peaked in 2004 at 41.7 Mt. The top oil producers in the EU in 2021 were Italy (4.8 Mt), Denmark (3.2 Mt), and Romania (3.2 Mt). These data are presented in Figure 1.
In Norway, one of the key European non-EU crude oil producers, the production peaked in 2001 (157.6 Mt). In the following years, the Norwegian production fluctuated and in 2019 it reached a record low (70.0 Mt) and then increased again reaching 87.4 Mt in 2021. The EU candidate countries Turkey, Serbia, and Albania have some production of crude oil, however on a rather small scale (in total nearly 5.0 Mt in 2021). Finally, some Energy Community contracting parties played a role, in particular Ukraine, which in 2021 was not yet a candidate country, produced 1.6 Mt of crude oil in 2021.
Imports of crude oil
In 2021, total imports of crude oil to the EU amounted to 446.5 Mt. This represents a small increase from the 2020 level which was lowest value in the 31 years time series starting in 1990. Most imports came from Russia (112.3 Mt), Norway (43.6 Mt), USA (37.4 Mt), Kazakhstan (35.7 Mt) and Libya (35.6 Mt). The origins of the crude oil imported to the EU have changed over the years. Imports from Russia continued declining since their last peak in 2005 (184.7 Mt). Imports from Norway have more than halved over the period 2000-2012 and then stabilised. In 2021, they increased by 14.2 percentage points (pp) compared with the previous year. Imports of crude from the USA were historically almost irrelevant but have been increasing sharply in the last few years, they jumped 33.6 pp in 2020, and another 6.8 pp in 2021 reaching the record high and making this country the third provider to the EU for the first time. Kazakhstan, which had been gaining ground in recent years, decreased -4.3 pp in 2021. Imports from Libya almost tripled from the record low of the previous year placing this origin in the fifth place.
EU countries import their crude oil from different origins depending on several factors such as prices, contracts, OPEC decisions, international situations, transportation costs, and more. See the interactive map of imports of crude oil to EU countries by origin.
Production of petroleum products
In 2021, the EU refineries produced 521.0 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) of petroleum products. This represented a slight recovery of 3.2 % from the previous year which recorded the lowest quantity ever produced (since the beginning of the time series in 1990) as the production dropped largely due to the COVID-19 related restrictions to movements which had cut the demand for transport fuels. Production had previously peaked in 1998 (645.5 Mtoe) and in 2006 (642.2 Mtoe).
In 2021, the biggest producer was Germany (94.4 Mtoe), followed by Italy (70.2 Mtoe), Netherlands (60.3 Mtoe) and Spain (59.3 Mtoe).
In 2021, the EU produced mostly gas/diesel oil (219.2 Mtoe), followed by motor gasoline (97.0 Mtoe), fuel oil (50.2 Mtoe) and naphtha (40.0 Mtoe). Figure 5 below gives further details.
Trade in petroleum products
Imports of crude oil are by far the most important component of trade in oil statistics, yet the EU also trades manufactured petroleum products some of which are mostly imported while others are mostly exported. In 2021, the largest net imports from non-EU countries were for naphtha (23.8 Mtoe) which registered a record high, gas/diesel oil (13.3 Mtoe), and liquefied petroleum gases (13.3 Mtoe). EU had net exports mostly of motor gasoline (49.8 Mtoe) and fuel oil (7.4 Mtoe). See Table 1 for more details on the trade of petroleum products.
Oil imports dependency
Import dependency on oil is calculated as the ratio of net imports (imports minus exports) to gross available energy of crude oil and petroleum products. Positive values indicate an import dependency, while negative values indicate a net exporter country. If positive values are above 100 %, it means that imports surpass the needs of a country and that consequently stocks are being built up. Import dependency can be calculated for an aggregate of products or for just one fuel. The import dependency for the entire family of crude oil and petroleum products reached a record high in 2020 when the EU relied on net imports for 96.96 % of its energy availability but dropped to 91.67 % in 2021 marking the lowest value in 22 years. The dependency on foreign oil had been growing from the lower rates observed in previous decades and from a minimum observed in 1999 (91.66 %). The dependency drop in 2021 could be explained by the combined result of changes in exports (+9.21 pp) which increased more than the imports (+3.41 pp) and the increase in gross available energy (+5.25 pp).
The drop in dependency was also supported by the use of 20.4 Mtoe of oil stocks which was the largest yearly draw ever recorded and equivalent to 4.08 % of the gross available energy.
Primary production slightly decreased (see above) but it has less of an influence on the indicator given its relatively low level.
The import dependency rate for crude oil, an essential commodity for the petrochemical industry and the production of transport fuels, was still the highest of all major energy products (fossil and non-fossil) but in 2021 further decreased to 95.09 % from the highest value ever recorded (96.76 %) in 2019. The change in dependency in the last two years was the result of a decrease in imports (-11.93 pp) by far the most important variable in this indicator, and a slightly smaller decrease in gross available energy (-10.34 pp). Other variables such as primary production and exports also changed (-10.9 pp and -32.8 pp respectively) however, they have a very minor influence given their comparatively low levels. The drop in dependency was also slightly influenced by an unusual large draw of 4.9 Mtoe of crude oil from stocks, which however was equivalent to only 1.06 % of the gross available energy.
Final consumption in the EU and in the Member States
In 2021, the final consumption of oil and petroleum products for energy and non-energy purposes in the EU Member States increased 4.4 % to 400.6 Mtoe from the lowest level ever recorded in the 31 years time series in 2020, which was due to the COVID-19 restrictions that started in the first few months of 2020 and slowly ended in 2021 for most EU Member States. The consumption had already decreased from the peak of 2001 (499 Mtoe) to a low point in 2014 (409 Mtoe) yet, before the shock of the restrictions, it was increasing again. In 2021, the value started normalising overall but with changes in different directions in the various Member States. The consumption increased more prominently in Italy (+14.6 pp), Spain (+11.6 pp) and Czechia (+11.0 pp) while decreased more evidently in Finland (-11.3 pp), Germany (-3.9 pp) and Estonia (-3.2 pp).
Member States have different energy and non-energy consumption patterns of oil and petroleum products, which are influenced by the size and structure of their economies. In 2021, Germany held the lead with a 20.75 % share of the total final EU consumption, followed by France (15.8 %), Italy (10.8 %) and Spain (10.3 %).
Final consumption of petroleum products for energy use
In the EU, the final energy consumption of oil and petroleum products (excluding international shipping and aviation) partially recovered in 2021 from the slump registered in 2020 when transport fossil fuels were clearly the hit by the limitations to people's movements, (309.8 Mtoe) reaching 327.5 Mtoe, an increase of 5.7 % .
Gas/diesel oil had been growing since the lowest value of the beginning of the time series (193.0 Mtoe) in 1990, to its highest peak in 2006 (254.4 Mtoe). Recently, it was regaining ground from the drop to 228.0 Mtoe in 2014. In 2020, however it fell to 217.8 Mtoe, but increased by 4.7 % to 227.9 Mtoe in 2021. Gasoline consumption had significantly decreased from the 1998 high (115.5 Mtoe) to its previously lowest value in 2017 (66.0 Mtoe) and was slowly increasing in recent years. In 2021 it increased by 9.3 % to 63.6 Mtoe, after having marked a record low in 2020 (58.2 Mtoe). Gas/diesel oil and gasoline are by far the two most important products throughout the whole 31 years period, yet other products showed relevant changes in 2021. The trend of the final energy consumption of individual petroleum products is shown in Figure 7.
Kerosene-type jet fuel used in aviation which increased enormously (+25.55 pp) to 25.8 Mtoe. This fuel had been increasing since 1990 (22.2 Mtoe) and in 2019, it had reached an absolute high: 48.2 Mtoe however, the cancellation of most flights in 2020 had led to the decrease of -56.4 pp from the previous year to the lowest level ever recorded. In 2021, 83.4 % of this fuel was used in international aviation while 16.6 % was consumed for domestic fights, such split is rather stable through the years
Fuel oil used in navigation continued its long-term descent due to regulatory and market changes and, in 2021, increased a small 1.9 % but this is mostly explained the exceptionally low value of 2020. The largest portion of this fuel was used for international voyages (96.2 %), the rest for domestic shipping (3.8 %).
Consumption in sectors
In 2021, the vast majority of sectors showed a recovery from the contraction in consumption of 2020. In some cases the increase was substantial, such in the services sector (+11.4 pp) and the transport sector, the largest user of oil products (+9.4 pp overall for different types of transports) and the consumption in the industry sector also increased both for non-energy use (+6.3 pp) and for energy use (+2.7 pp).
Households sector marked instead a sharp decrease in consumption (-18.1 pp) due to the high value of 2020 when many people were confined to their homes.
The share of consumption of petroleum products by sector is shown in Figure 9. Domestic and international transport were by far the largest users with a combined 63.3 % of the total consumption. Road transport was a key consumer with 48.7 %, while air and water transport used 9.1 % and 5.2 % respectively. Industry was the second sector with a 20.3 % share which includes non-energy consumption (15.5 %) such as bitumen for road surfaces, the use of lubricants for reducing friction as well as the use of oil products in the petrochemical industry for their chemical properties rather than for their energy content. In these cases they are transformed in other products (such as plastics, detergents and tires for example) rather than combusted for energy. Households and the energy sector had shares of 5.1 % and 4.9 % respectively. Services, both commercial and public, used about 2.2 %, while other sectors, including agriculture, forestry and fishing, consumed about 3.8 % of the total.
Fuels in road transport
In 2021, road transport was dominated by gas/diesel oil (66.5 %) and motor gasoline (24.0 %). LPG covered a small portion of the consumption in this sector with a 2 % share and its usage varied greatly among countries. Other fuels are starting to cover some of the needs in the road transport sector thanks to important EU policies, technological development and changes in consumer choices. In 2021, the EU had a share of actual consumption of 6.4 % for renewables and biofuels. Lastly, despite a small increase over the years, electricity still played a minor role in road transport (0.2 %).
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
Data on energy are submitted on the basis of an internationally agreed methodology in joint annual energy questionnaires (Eurostat - OECD/IEA - UNECE). Data are available for all EU Member States and the methodology is harmonised for all reporting countries. Consequently, data comparability across countries is very high.
Data may be ratified due to resubmission to increase quality, changes are normally minimal. To view the latest data please visit our website.
Context
Crude oil and petroleum products have the highest share of energy consumption in the EU, yet the situation is slowly evolving. There is a long-term decreasing trend in the demand in the EU which is due to several aspects including structural changes in the economy, more efficient use of oil products, and other technical changes such as the switch from gasoline to diesel. In recent years, several EU policies and initiatives are tackling the security of energy supplies as well as the environmental and climate aspects of oil production and consumption. These are incentivising energy efficiency, supporting the transition to biofuels and electricity transport, and helping the research and development of new fuels, such as hydrogen. 2021 data show a tendency to return to the underlying trends after the shock to these energy commodities in 2020 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic but also offer some additional insights.
Direct access to
- Energy statistics - main indicators (t_nrg_indic)
- Energy statistics - quantities (t_nrg_quant)