By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL- On Monday, at a press conference, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and leaders of the European Council announced that the European Union agreed on a 90 percent ban of Russian oil imports by the end of 2022. Von der Leyen also announced that Russian oil delivered by tankers will be banned while an exemption will be made for the southern segment of the Druzhba pipeline that accounts for 10 percent of Russian oil imports. Meanwhile, the northern segment of the pipeline is used by Poland and Germany who agreed to the embargo. The southern part is used by Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
In 2021, the EU was dependent on Russia for 23 percent of its oil imports with Germany, Netherlands and Poland being the European Union’s largest importers of Russian oil by volume in 2021. At least, one in four EU countries were dependent on Russian oil for more than half their imports. Von der Leyen commented: “We have a clear political statement by Poland and Germany that they will, as the others, wind down Russian oil until the end of the year. We have covered, overall,l 90 percent of Russian oil being wound down during this timeframe. Leftover is the roundabout 10 or 11 percent that is covered by the southern Druzhba. We have agreed for the moment an exemption.” In addition, she said that EU leaders will continue meetings to discuss details on the oil embargo and other sectors of the sanctions package.
The European Council in a formal statement on Monday said: “The European Council agrees that the sixth package of sanctions against Russia will cover crude oil as well as petroleum products, delivered from Russia into member states, with a temporary exception for crude oil delivered by pipeline.” The council added that it “will revert to the issue of the temporary exception for crude oil delivered by pipeline as soon as possible.”
A number of options to Russian oil have already been discussed. Von der Leyen said it’s possible to increase the use of the Adria oil pipeline in Croatia to supply oil to Hungary without Russia and said that Hungary’s refineries would need to be updated to accommodate oil from Croatia. She commented: “It is a big step forward what we did today. Because we have now gotten rid of coal – and this was already very difficult. Now, we basically have the political agreement, how to phase out oil in a clear timeframe.”
Initially, issues related to oil supply arose when Russia began cutting off gas supplies to the Netherlands, Poland, Finland and Bulgaria – labeling them “unfriendly countries” because of their support for sanctions on Russia and for Ukraine. The reason Russian President Vladimir Putin gave was that the countries did not comply with paying for oil in Russian rubles. In 2022, Russian natural gas exports are expected to generate close to $80 billion in ta revenues for the country.
