Data extracted in December 2025.
Planned article update: February 2026.
Highlights
The value of EU imports of energy products decreased by 12.0% in the third quarter of 2025 compared with the third quarter of 2024 while the quantity increased by 3.3%.
In the third quarter of 2025, the United States was the largest partner for EU imports of liquefied natural gas and Australia for coal.
In the third quarter of 2025, Norway was the largest partner for EU imports of natural gas in gaseous state and petroleum oils.
In the third quarter of 2025, the share for Russia in EU imports of liquefied natural gas (-5.2 pp) and natural gas in gaseous state (-8.6 pp) decreased, compared with the same quarter of 2024.
This article provides a picture of trade in energy products between the European Union (EU) and the rest of the world (extra-EU trade). The analysis focuses on yearly data for the period 2022-2025, with a view on latest quarterly data available, thus reflecting the most recent developments. Until the end of 2021, Russia was the main supplier of petroleum oils and natural gas to the EU. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the European Union reacted with several packages of sanctions, which directly and indirectly affected the trade of oils and natural gas. A major diversification of suppliers started to emerge progressively in the following periods.
The article shows data on trade in value (expressed in millions of euros) and net mass (weight expressed in tonnes). Supplementary information like trade in terajoules of natural gas can be found in Eurostat databases. The energy products considered in this article are petroleum oils (petroleum oils from natural gas condensates and petroleum oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude), natural gas (liquefied and in gaseous state) and solid fuels (coal, lignite, peat and coke).
This article is part of an online publication providing recent statistics on international trade in goods, covering information on the EU's main partners, main products traded, specific characteristics of trade as well as background information.
Overview
The analysis of the latest data shows a decline in the value of EU imports of energy products by 12.0% in the third quarter of 2025 compared with the same quarter of 2024, continuing the trend observed since 2022. The decline in EU imports is primarily due to a decrease in prices, especially for petroleum oil products. During this period, the net mass of these imports actually increased by 3.3%.
For the energy products analysed in this article, Figure 2 shows their share on total EU imports in the years 2021-2024, as well as in the third quarters of 2024 and 2025. The share of energy products on total EU imports observed significant fluctuations, because of strong volatility in their prices, peaking in 2022 at 22.8% of total EU imports. This was followed by a notable decline in 2023 to 17.8% and again in 2024 to 15.4%. Also, in the third quarter of 2025, there was a decrease of 2.1 percentage points (pp) compared with the same quarter in 2024. The breakdown by products shows that between the third quarters of 2024 and 2025, the shares of liquefied natural gas (+0.6 pp) increased while the shares of natural gas in gaseous state (-0.3 pp) petroleum oils (-2.2 pp) and coal (-0.2 pp) decreased.
Figure 3 compares the monthly average values and volumes of energy products.
In 2023, there was a substantial decrease in the value of petroleum oils, reaching €22.9 billion, driven by decreasing prices. This value decreased to €18.1 billion in 2025, mirroring a similar trend in volume, which peaked at 39.8 million tonnes in 2022 before declining.
Liquefied natural gas exhibited a distinct pattern. Its value peaked at €9.9 billion in 2022, and then stabilised at €4.7 billion in 2025. The volumes, however, were more stable growing slowly from 7.6 million tonnes in 2022 to 8.4 million tonnes in 2025, reflecting sustained and growing demand for this product. This steady volume growth indicates an ongoing shift towards liquefied natural gas as a substitute for natural gas in a gaseous state, whose volumes have decreased every year since 2022. Natural gas in a gaseous state experienced a significant drop in both value and volume after the surge in 2023, with average monthly values falling from €17.0 billion to €5.3 billion in 2025, and volumes decreasing from 12.6 million tonnes to 8.9 million tonnes, reflecting the market's shift towards liquefied natural gas.
Figure 4 shows the evolution of the volume of imports of energy products since the first quarter of 2021. In the third quarter of 2025 the volume of liquefied natural gas decreased by 16.6% compared with the previous quarter. Despite this quarterly decline, when compared with the first quarter of 2021, the volume showed a significant increase, rising by 107.5%. The increased popularity of liquefied natural gas could be explained by certain factors, such as ease of transport, higher efficiency and cleaner use compared with other sources of energy. The volume of natural gas in gaseous state dropped slightly (-1.8%) in the third quarter of 2025 when compared with the previous quarter, but the drop was more marked (-44.8%) when compared with the first quarter of 2021, due to the shift towards liquefied natural gas. The imports of petroleum oils showed an of 7.4 when compared with the first quarter of 2021. The volume of coal dropped significantly (-41.3%) when compared with first quarter of 2021. The significant reduction in coal imports is primarily due to a shift towards renewable energy sources and stricter environmental regulations aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
Main suppliers of petroleum oils, natural gas and coal to the EU
Russia's invasion of Ukraine led to significant changes in the share of the main partners because of several sanctions directly and indirectly affecting the imports of energy products from Russia.
Petroleum oils - partners
With regard to petroleum oils, the EU ban on seaborne imports of Russian crude oil entered into force on 5 December 2022, followed by the embargo on refined oil products as of 5 February 2023. The impact of these measures is visible in Figure 5 where Russia is no longer among the 7 main partners in the periods shown. In the third quarter of 2025, Norway (14.6%), the United States (14.5%) and Kazakhstan (12.2%) were the largest partners.
Figure 6 shows the evolution of the shares of the EU’s main partners in petroleum oil imports from the first quarter of 2021 onwards. A clear decline in Russia’s share is visible, which already began in 2022, as markets and companies anticipated the EU embargo and reduced purchases of Russian oil due to geopolitical uncertainty and operational constraints introduced by EU sanctions. Following the entry into force of the comprehensive embargo on imports of refined petroleum products, Russia’s share declined further, reaching 3.2% in the first quarter of 2023. From the fourth quarter of 2022 onwards, the United States and Norway became the EU’s main partners for petroleum oil imports.
Natural gas in gaseous state - partners
Norway was the largest supplier of natural gas in gaseous state to the EU in the third quarter of 2025, with a share of 51.8% (see Figure 7). It was followed by Algeria (14.6%) and the United Kingdom (13.4%). Compared with the third quarter of 2024, the share of Norway increased by 10.1 pp. By contrast, the share of Russia decreased by 8.6 pp in this period.
Figure 8 shows the evolution of the shares of the EU’s main partners in natural gas in gaseous state from the first quarter of 2021 onwards. Norway, already the EU’s main supplier at the beginning of 2022, further strengthened its position, and from the fourth quarter of 2024 onwards, approximately half of the EU’s gaseous natural gas imports originated from Norway. The restriction on gas imports from Russia led to a significant decrease in its share. However, from the fourth quarter of 2022 onwards, Russia's share only showed minor declines because of a few Member States' temporary exemptions due to infrastructure limitations preventing a rapid shift to alternative suppliers. Russia’s share is expected to decrease further, following the EU roadmap launched in May 2025 to phase out gas imports by 2027.
Liquefied natural gas - partners
In the third quarter of 2025, the United States (59.9%) was the largest supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the EU (see Figure 9). It was followed by Russia (12.7%), Algeria (7.7%) and Qatar (6.0%). Compared with the third quarter of 2024, the share of the United States increased by 19.1 pp. By contrast, the shares of Russia (-5.2 pp) and Algeria (-5.8 pp) decreased in this period.
Figure 10 shows the evolution of the share of the EU's main partners in LNG. The United States, which accounted for 24% of EU LNG imports in the beginning of 2021, increased its share to 60% by the third quarter of 2025, reinforcing its position as the dominant supplier. Russia’s share in EU imports of LNG decreased from 21% in the first quarter of2021 to 13% in third quarter of 2025 (see Figure 6). Despite this decline, Russia remained the EU’s second-largest supplier, although the gap with the main partner widened considerably. .
Coal - partners
In the third quarter of 2025, Australia (36.3%) was the largest supplier of coal to the EU (see Figure 11). It was followed by the United States (30.7%) and Kazakhstan (9.7%). Compared with the third quarter of 2024, the share of Kazakhstan increased by 3.4 pp. By contrast, the share of the United States decreased by 2.3 pp in this period.
The effect of the complete ban on EU imports of coal from Russia is clearly visible in Figure 12. The United States and Australia became the main partners from the first quarter of 2023 onwards.
Source data for tables and graphs
The excel file attached to this article contains all figures and tables shown in the article as well as some additional detailed tables.
Data sources
EU data is taken from Eurostat's COMEXT database. COMEXT is the reference database for international trade in goods. It provides access not only to both recent and historical data from the EU Member States but also to statistics of a significant number of non-EU countries. International trade aggregated and detailed statistics disseminated via the Eurostat website are compiled from COMEXT data according to a monthly process.
Data are collected by the competent national authorities of the EU Member States and compiled according to a harmonised methodology established by EU regulations before transmission to Eurostat. For extra-EU trade, the statistical information is mainly provided by the traders on the basis of customs declarations.
EU data are compiled according to EU guidelines and may, therefore, differ from national data published by the EU Member States. Statistics on extra-EU trade are calculated as the sum of trade of each of the 27 EU Member States with countries outside the EU. In other words, the EU is considered as a single trading entity and trade flows are measured into and out of the area, but not within it.
Trade in energy products is more susceptible of being confidential. In the context of this article, Eurostat has carried out some estimation in order to provide more accurate information while not disclosing confidential figures. Note that those estimated data cannot be retrieved from Eurostat databases or found in other publications. When going through the figures, it should also be kept in mind that confidentiality treatments may impact the data consistency. In particular, total values may slightly diverge from the sum of their subcomponents.
Energy products
This article analyses the EU imports of the following subset of energy products, as classified according to the Combined Nomenclature (CN), of either 4 or 8 digits. Chapter 27 of the Combined Nomenclature (mineral fuels, mineral oils) contains more products than the ones considered in this article. The CN codes analysed are grouped as follows:
Petroleum oils
- 27090010: Petroleum oils from natural gas condensates
- 27090090: Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude
Natural gas
- 27111100: Natural gas, liquefied
- 27112100: Natural gas in gaseous state
Solid fuels
- 2701: Coal
- 2702: Lignite
- 2703: Peat
- 2704: Coke
Note that Eurostat publishes additional energy statistics in the Energy Dedicated Section. With regards to imports and exports of energy products, there are methodological reasons for differences between figures from energy statistics and figures presented in this article originating from international trade in goods statistics (ITGS):
- Different data sources: The sources for ITGS are the Intrastat declarations for intra-EU trade and the customs declarations for extra-EU trade. Additional data sources like data from national grid operators can also be used for natural gas and electricity. The sources for energy statistics are special statistical surveys, administrative data and estimations.
- Different concept applicable to the partner country: In ITGS, the partner country is the country of consignment for intra-EU imports and the country of origin for extra-EU imports. In energy statistics, the partner country is the country of origin for both intra- and extra-EU imports.
- Different breakdowns: Imports and exports are available in quantities and values broken down by partner in ITGS while only the quantities without partner breakdown are available in energy statistics.
- Different estimation techniques: In ITGS, the value is collected or estimated (estimation based on collected invoice value or, for natural gas and electricity, on additional data sources) while in energy statistics the value is not collected but estimated using quantities and retail prices.
Units of measure
- Trade values correspond to the statistical value. For imports, this is the amount in national currency which would be invoiced in case of purchase at the national border of the reporting country. It is called a CIF value (cost, insurance, freight) for imports.
- Quantities correspond to the net mass, expressed in tonnes.
- Supplementary information like trade in terajoules for natural gas can be found in Eurostat databases.
Data limitations
- Missing EU data — This article is mostly based on collected data (confidential and non-confidential). Missing data is estimated by the compilers of statistical information in the EU Member States.
- Confidentiality — Because of confidentiality, total values may differ from the sum of individual components.
- Trade and consumption — This article focuses on imports and exports of energy products and does not consider EU domestic energy production. Part of the energy products consumed in the EU is produced in the EU.